On July 1, 1998, Dewy Wayne Willis, Sr. of Morehead City - Captain of the Capt. David, Thomas Allen Lewis of Davis - Captain of the Charles D. Smith, and Billy J. Pittman of Newport - Captain of the Frieda Marie, pled guilty to using unauthorized trawls in a no-trawling zone located between Cape Hatteras and the S.C. state line. The zone extends from 0-200 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean.
The men paid a fine of $1,000 each for using flynets (a type of trawling) 21 miles south of the Beaufort Inlet on January 18, 1998. The only type of trawling that can legally occur in the area south of Cape Hatteras, is shrimp, crab or flounder trawling, and then there are certain catch restrictions that apply. Charges were dropped against the nine crewmen involved in the case.
In order to comply with an Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission fishery management plan for weakfish, the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission (MCF) established a prohibited area in the Atlantic Ocean to protect stocks of weakfish that congregate just off the North Carolina coast in the wintertime. Weakfish are an important fishery in North Carolina, both economically and culturally, and stocks are listed as "stressed recovering" in the latest Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) stock assessment.
The N.C. Marine Patrol closely monitored the area south of Cape Hatteras this past winter to ensure compliance with the restrictions. These were the first cases in North Carolina where fines were recovered under the reauthorized federal Magnuson-Stevens Act, which allows states to regulate and enforce conservation measures for federal fishery management plans in waters out to 200 miles.
Return to Press Release Page.