By Kelly Odom
Fish Eye News

North Carolina’s new saltwater fishing rulebook is bigger and better than in year’s past.

The North Carolina Rules for Coastal Fishing Waters 2009 includes numerous revisions from the 2007 version, all designed to make the book easier to use.

“Once people get use to the format, we feel the rulebook will be much easier to use,” said Catherine Blum, chairperson of a Division of Marine Fisheries Rules Index Working Group.

The rulebook is a collection of state rules and statutes that govern fishing activities in coastal and joint fishing waters. It is published biannually by the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.

The intricate nature of marine fisheries regulations coupled with amendments made over decades had complicated the rulebook to the point that it was hard to understand.

The idea for improving the rulebook came about in the fall of 2007 while DMF employees were updating an Interjurisdictional Fishery Management Plan, through which the state adopts, by reference, federal and interstate fishing regulations.

Instead of repeating the same rule numerous times, they decided to remove specific restrictions for each species and place them all under general proclamation authority, allowing the DMF director to change the regulations as necessary to comply with federal laws.

At this point, it became clear that other measures could be taken to simplify the rulebook, though the actual rules could not be changed.

The working group labored 1 ½ years. They added an introduction that lists all the different agencies that take part in helping regulate our fisheries resources. It explains what a proclamation is and gives several Web site addresses that fishermen can go to for further research.

TAKING A PEEK – Marine Patrol Lt. Harold Knudsen shows Earl Fulcher a new rulebook.

The group expanded the index from two pages to 12 and organized it under five major headings – gear, lease, license, permit and species – to guide the user.

“A person may know they need a license, but not exactly which one,” Blum said.  “They can look under the heading “license” and scan the entire list of licenses that the division sells and find what license they are looking for.”

At the request of the Marine Fisheries Commission, the group also added a diamond symbol to certain species indicating that the fish falls under proclamation authority. It means there may be a proclamation in place with additional regulations. It does not necessarily mean there is a proclamation in place.

DMF started handing out the new rulebook in April, as commercial fishing license sales began. It is available online and can be downloaded at www.ncdmf.net.