From Ron Brooks,
Your Guide to Saltwater Fishing.
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Mary Schumann is the wife of a commercial fisherman. Here are her thoughts on the battles and restrictions the industry faces on a daily basis:

We Must Unite To Remain Standing

The division between the Commercial and the Recreational fishermen must end. Both groups have common goals: to catch fish, to keep fish stocks sustainable and to keep fish stocks available for all people. The Commercial fishing profession is on the brink of extinction. Regulations are so prohibitive that earning a living becomes a daily battle. The average age of a fishing professional is 50 years old. Young people are not entering the profession; watching parents struggle to survive is not much motivation or incentive to enter a profession.

If the fisheries management bureaucracy successfully eradicates the Commercial fishing industry, what is next? Will the bureaucrats regulate themselves out of jobs? I think not. Who will be the next target? The Marine Patrol, which regularly haunts fish houses to inspect catches, will instead be posted at beach ramps to check coolers and measure fish. They will greet the charter fleet at the dock to check kill boxes. The only manageable fisheries left will be the recreational sector; the regulatory energy will have nowhere else to go. The NC Saltwater recreational fishing license is only the first step.

The exploitation of the coastal environment is killing the nursery grounds of so many fish species. Bulk-headed estuaries, filled to accommodate construction of condominiums, vacation homes, and sport boat marinas, are destroying fish breeding grounds. Many coastal areas rely on septic fields to process waste. It is terrifying to imagine what is happening to the water quality in maximum density usage areas from waste. Yet, as fish stocks decline, fingers continually point at Commercial fisheries. The unfathomable degradation of the coastal environment is continually overlooked, or more likely ignored, as a crucial factor of stock declination.

Why would a fisherman, dependent on species proliferation senselessly deplete stocks necessary for survival? These professionals have harvested the sea for years. For most, it is a life’s work; for many it is a heritage. They are not a band of marauding pirates ravaging the sea; rather they are merely hard working men and women trying to earn a living in a profession no longer in vogue. It is in the best interest of commercial fishermen to abide by the rules and regulations set forth by Marine Fisheries.

Certain interest groups successfully created fission between the two factions to achieve their desired goal of ‘’zero fishing”. Commercial interests even battle among each other. It must end now. All fishermen must unite and stop the petty finger pointing. Working together to fight exploitation of the coastal environment, the true culprit of stock depletion, is the only way to insure fish aplenty for everyone. The only solution is to join forces, and stand united before the Marine Fisheries and specific interest groups to keep fishing available to everyone. I wonder how many of you out there feel the same way mary does...