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Our first
objective is to
promote and assist in the enactment and enforcement of laws and
regulations that allow watermen to continue harvesting the fisheries
resource of North Carolina. We are proud to have been involved in
changing the individual salt-water license fee (Coastal Recreational
License Fee – CRFL) from one that every angler would have to
buy
to one that charter/headboats could buy, called the
“blanket” fee to cover its passengers. We were also
instrumental in getting these fees reduced from $1500.00 –
5000.00 to the more reasonable amounts of $250.00 and $350.00. The NCWU Board of Directors, and all of the members, work daily - both on the water and off - to encourage the maintenance of high standards of professionalism among the watermen of North Carolina. We engage in public relations every day, and we work with the clients of every charter/headboat trip to educate the people to understand the problems, concerns, and proposed solutions of the professional watermen. We will continue to bring the importance of our fishing industry to the attention of our local, state and federally elected officials. We weighed in heavily on issues concerning our commercial harvesters and target species of Large Coastal Sharks, Dogfish, Drum, Rock and the Snapper/Grouper Complex. We have worked to ensure that watermen (all three user groups – commercial, charter/headboat and recreational fishermen) are represented on appointed committees and commissions in any government-financed plan whose intent is to enhance the state’s marine sources. We have already had a NCWU board member appointed to the State Travel and Tourism Board and will continue to work for appointments and elections to the boards of all fishery-related groups. We instituted the first state-wide study dealing with the economic impact of the charter/headboat industry. The study, funded and administered by Sea Grant, the University of North Carolina, East Carolina University and North Carolina State, is continuing through October of 2008. The study is very comprehensive and is gathering information from both charter/headboat captains and from random surveys of their clients. We helped convene and organize the Dare County Commission for Working Watermen (CWW), a task force to work directly with the Dare County Board of Commissioners. We continue to be ever diligent in the evaluation of changes that affect watermen; changes in the health of our resources; changes in the political climate in which we exist and changes in the economic realities affecting our industry. We will keep our members informed on these issues and - with membership approval - we will adopt appropriate strategies for the purpose of addressing new and emerging events. |