The Wilmington morning star., 1947-10-19

rr the past week this corner has been sitting back WATCHING
h. fish fight" going on between Wilmington and Morehead City
aus on the matter of baby sailfish being DESTROYED in a net
The subject is purely controversial and Fish Lines" has
Il M desire to become mixed in the Draw. raging between Aycock
BROWN, New Bern columnist; Carl Cahil, Morehead City writer
\ and the offices OF Ken Noble, Ltd, pub agents for SENCBA.
Il But without champloning any particular person it is highly
nnsble this column might throw some light on the subject which
r have been missed by the reader.
In the first instance none of the persons involved in the
n Aouabble" are fishermen, at least not to the point where they
j sOend hours and days in search of surf and deepsea fish.
For that matter your writer is not a fisherman, but he does try.
\ First:
Brown said baby sailfsh were being destroyed by being caught
n, nets Of commercial fishermen.
Second:
The Wilmington writer cried malicious destruction"
Third:
CahHl wrote There are no sails being caught in nets"
Both of the latter were striking in opposite directions, each
.Hempting to discredit the yarn of a man who had studied a
.+raton and came up with:
nsailfsh spawn off the North Carolina coast"
If the Wilmington writer had thought for a moment ne
would have seen where going along with Brown would have
beep the sweetest bit of publicity possible.
Instead he tried to show that upstate fishermen were repeatedly
.ndangering the future of sport fishing.
The Morehead City writer tried to discredit the fact that even
small sails were being caught.
Conservation departments throughout the nation spend
millions of dollars annually to ascertain exactly what Brown
proved through deduction.
If sail6sh do spawn off this coast-and such is highly possible
thor what b ter pub story could one find than to write:
Fish where you are sure to find sails-where they spawn"
Salmon fishing made many western territories when it was
discovered the fish spawned at certain times of the year and
could be caught in great numbers.
Tuna fishing follows the same cycle with Nova Scotia reaping
1.-The harvest as the blue-fins visit that territory on their yearly
pilgrimage.
To back up part of Browns statements the writer has seen
schools of small sail following bats. He has also talked to sport
fishermen who have watched the same spectacle.
And for the information of the three writers who have
struggled to prove and disprove, it might be interesting to
know that the first recorded sail caught off the Southeastern
coast was a "baby" sail hooked by Capt. Thomas H. Watts
brother off Southport.
From the time Of that catch the party boat business picked up
until now a double catch is not unusual.
If the destruction of saifish by commercial fishermen is a
crime then it might be a good idea for those persons interested
lin the promotion of sport fishing to make a survey OF nets which
are cast off the coast of Southeastern North Carolina.
The ocean is large and when one casts either a hook or
net into the water he does not know what might strike.
Nets cast off the local coast are often filled with small fry of
blues, trout, pompano, mackerel and other game fish. AS the net
is dragged across the sand the small fry are either crushed or fall
into the sand. In many instances they are separated and sold.
Such is true with sailfish.
Another angle, if small sail are being taken in nets then it
ba safe bet that the specie feeds in closer than the waters of
the Gulf Stream and that alone would be worth checking.
From this corners point Of view if it took the destruction of
LOO small saiLish to prove they spawn off the Tar Heel coast then
sport fishermen have been handed the cheapest survey ever
Undertaken.
There is no difference, in the writer's book, between the
commercial fishermen who unknowingly kills a small sail
than the so-called sport fisherman who trolls all day long
filling the boat with fish which he brings to shore then throws
away. The latter will do more to exterminate sport fish than
gl all the nets Of commercial fishermen.