Keith Lusher 04.30.25
In what could be essentially the most artistic type of maritime protest the Outer Banks has seen, native angler Dave Harding is planning to take his battle in opposition to fishing rules to new depths, all whereas floating atop an inflatable dinosaur.
The bizarre protest comes after a uncommon alternative for shore-based anglers was abruptly halted earlier this month. For a short interval in April, bluefin tuna, that are huge fish usually discovered miles offshore, made an surprising look close to Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head, giving pier anglers the prospect of a lifetime.
That’s, till federal regulators stepped in.
A consultant from the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) delivered the deflating information: shore-based anglers are prohibited from fishing for, catching, touchdown, or maintaining bluefin tuna with no vessel allow, which, by definition, requires having a vessel.
“An insane regulation calls for an insane protest,” declared Harding, a consultant for the pier-fishing advocacy group Fishing Piers, as he proudly displayed his answer: a cartoonish inflatable dinosaur float he’s named “TunaSauras.”
In a transfer that has each bewildered and amused state officers, Harding has efficiently registered his pool toy as an official North Carolina vessel and obtained the required allow for catching extremely migratory species like bluefin tuna.
“I can now go fish legally from the pier, from the water, and have the ability to legally retain the tuna,” Harding defined whereas holding his newly registered vessel for native information cameras.
The regulation on the heart of the controversy requires all vessels, not all individuals, that fish for Atlantic Extremely Migratory Species to have a vessel allow. The seemingly minor wording distinction successfully bars anybody with out entry to a ship from collaborating within the bluefin fishery, even when the fish swim inside casting distance of shore.
“That is entry discrimination; that is financial discrimination,” Harding argues. “Why are they banning fishermen who’re having such a low yield, even participating on this?”
The crackdown went past simply stopping the fishing. NOAA officers additionally instructed Jennette’s Pier administration to take away all references to the bluefin chew from their social media platforms, claiming such posts had been “selling an criminality.”
Native angler Tyler Parker voiced his frustration on-line: “It is a traditional instance of presidency overreach. Punishing those that can’t afford or don’t desire a boat over a silly $25 allow that does nothing besides take cash out of your pocket into theirs.”
When Harding approached the licensing workplace along with his inflatable dinosaur, officers had been puzzled however couldn’t discover grounds to reject his software. In response to Harding, the “USS TunaSauras” meets all technical necessities to be categorised as a vessel.
“Technically, sure — if I used to be sitting on this in an inch of water, even on the shore, there’s no rules that stated the vessel needs to be within the water,” Harding defined.
A protest was deliberate for Saturday, with Harding inviting different anglers to affix him with their very own registered inflatables. A petition can be circulating calling for adjustments to rules that many see as unfairly excluding shore-based fishermen from collaborating in a uncommon alternative.
For now, it appears the battle between inflatable dinosaurs and federal fisheries administration is simply starting to warmth up on the Outer Banks, giving new that means to the phrase “no matter floats your boat.”
