Impacts of New Regulations on North Carolina Fishermen: A Classificatory Analysis

Abstract

The findings presented here derive from eight months of research designed to address the following objectives: 1. To develop a classification system that identifies and defines North Carolina fishers in terms of dependence on the resource, gear type, effort, motivation for fishing, and core and secondary species they target; 2. To determine how different groups of fishers will be impacted by different regulatory scenarios; 3. To evaluate North Carolina’s licensing system in terms of its ability to monitor numbers, characteristics, and behaviors of commercial and recreational fishers; 4, To assess the experiences of other states in developing and administering licensing programs.

Accomplishing these objectives involved several phases of field research and analysis, all of which were oriented toward gaining a view of North Carolina fishing—commercial and recreational—from a variety of perspectives. Because of the highly politicized environment of the past two years, it was necessary to triangulate our data sources to reduce respondent bias. Thus, we used a variety of methods to cross-check, assess, and validate information received from different sources representing different political and economic interests in the fisheries. Our respondents included: a) recreational anglers whom we located through sportfishing lists, DMF data, and an intercept methodology; b) charter boat captains and pier owners; c) commercial fishermen and their families all along the coast and throughout the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine System c) seafood processors and seafood processing workers; and d) fishermen and marine regulatory personnel in North Carolina and in 12 other states. Our methods of observation and data collection included: visits to fishing centers around the state (cultural mapping); surveying individuals in other states regarding their licensing programs and experiences, including government officials and fishermen; surveying recreational fishermen, charter boat captains, and pier owners; conducting in-depth interviews with commercial fishers; and eliciting feedback from members of fishing families concerning regulatory and other social problems in the context of focus groups.