Hatteras Crushed by Irene and Sea Turtle Regulations

The two main industries on Hatteras Island are tourism and fishing. Hurricane Irene recently wiped out the first, and sea-turtle regulations just wiped out the second, bringing commerce on the island to a grinding halt.

To protect endangered sea turtles, the federal government has banned large-mesh gill-net fishing in Pamlico Sound for more than a decade, with one exception. From Sept. 1 to Nov. 30 each year, commercial fishermen are allowed to catch flounder using the nets, under the strict supervision of federal agents.

But this year the opening of flounder season has been delayed indefinitely to protect an increasing number of sea turtles in the sound that haven’t yet left for warmer waters.

Residents of Hatteras Island were especially looking forward to flounder season this year because Hurricane Irene temporarily has eliminated the only other source of income for most families – tourism.

Recreational fishing-related tourism makes up about 75 percent of the economy on Hatteras Island, according to Ernie Foster, a local charter boat guide. Commercial fishing makes up the other 25.

But it hasn’t always been that way, Foster said. Before his father helped create the tourism industry by starting a charter boat business in the 1930’s, the islanders relied primarily on commercial fishing to make a living.

Because Hurricane Irene recently severed Highway 12 – the main road connecting the island the mainland – and severely damaged the north half of the island, the tourism industry, at least temporarily, is dead, Foster said.

Until the road is rebuilt, which could take several months, commercial fishing is all the island has left, he said. “We have reverted to our origins.”

Usually, fall is flounder season for commercial fishermen on Hatteras. It is the only time of year they are allowed to use large mesh gill nets designed for catching the fish. But, this year and last year, the state postponed the traditional opening date of Sept. 1, because of a large number of “endangered” sea turtles still present in Pamlico Sound.

The federal government has banned gill-net fishing in Pamlico Sound since 1999, after National Marine Fisheries agents noticed an increase in the number of what they call “interactions” with sea turtles in the area.

The state obtained a permit from the federal agency allowing the nets to be used for three months each year, as long as the number of interactions with certain species of sea turtles didn’t exceed various limits.

“If a turtle swims into your net and you free him and he swims off, that’s an interaction,” Foster said.

For a species of turtle called Kemp’s Ridley, the limit is three “live” interactions or two “dead.” That means as soon as three turtles get caught in the nets throughout the Pamlico Sound, even if they survive unhurt, flounder season is closed for the rest of the year. Federal agents board 10 percent of the flounder expeditions to keep a count of the interactions.

In 2009, flounder season ended early, in October, because of too many interactions with Kemp’s Ridley. In 2010, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries delayed the opening of the fishery until Sept. 20 to give the turtles more time to leave the area and to minimize interactions.

This year, there were again too many sea turtles present in the sound for the state agency to feel comfortable opening flounder season on Sept. 1.

“We know now from our observers that there are a lot of sea turtles out there, even with the storm coming through,” said Patricia Smith, public information officer for the NC Division of Marine Fisheries.

“Over the past several years the interactions have increased,” she said. “We’re catching more live … we’re catching more Kemp’s Ridley.”

The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission – comprised primarily of commercial fishermen – will decide at their meeting in Raleigh on Sept. 7 when to open the flounder fishery. Foster said the director of the Division of Marine Fisheries, Louis Daniel, told him he hoped the waters would cool down enough so that the fishery could open by October. Daniel couldn’t be reached for comment, but Smith said the date is unknown.

“We’re letting the commission decide,” she said. “Do you want to open it now and risk very quickly having these interactions with sea turtles, and then having to close the rest of the season, or do you want to wait and give them time to move out of the waters?”

Foster said he hopes it opens quickly. “I live in a place where virtually no one has a job,” he said. The hotels, restaurants, boat yards and knick-knack stores have “zero customers,” he said. “I don’t know when I’ll run another charter.”

The commercial fishermen “are the only ones who can work, and they’re being constrained by these regulations,” Foster said. “In dire economic times, making some modest exceptions to allow hardworking, self-sufficient people to have at it, as opposed to putting everybody on the public dole, seems to be a good idea.”

In addition to Pamlico Sound, where gill-net fishing is restricted by federal regulations, the state closed large-mesh gill-net fishing in southern Core Sound, Back Sound, The Straits and North River (all in Carteret County) on July 18. These areas have been “hot spots” for certain species of endangered turtles for the last couple of years, Smith said.

The closure is in response to a lawsuit against the NC Division of Marine Fisheries by the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, a nonprofit animal hospital in Topsail Island, Smith said.

The suit alleges that the North Carolina Department of Marine Fisheries and the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission have issued permits and licenses that “have resulted in the illegal take of estimated thousands of protected sea turtles over the previous decades, and continue to result in the illegal take of protected sea turtles today.”

“We value the rich history of commercial fishermen and fishing communities in our state. However, gill nets are a destructive gear and the prevailing method of use injures and kills sea turtles and threatens their existence,” the group’s lawyer said.

Sara Burrows is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.