Plan for new pound nets in Chesapeake Bay denied

NEWPORT NEWS

Virginia Beach residents, environmentalists and scientists helped to defeat a proposal Tuesday for two new pound nets - long, fence-line structures that catch thousands of fish - near busy beaches on the Chesapeake Bay.

After hearing arguments about the big nets, slated in an area popular with boaters, swimmers and tourists near the Lynnhaven Inlet and Cape Henry, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission voted unanimously to reject them.

"When you balance everything out, I don't think this is in the public interest," said Rick Robins, a commission member from Suffolk.

Two other pound nets, each about 1,200 feet long, also are proposed for the vicinity by different fishermen.

But the structures - wood pilings with a series of mesh chambers strung between them - face similar opposition and seem headed for defeat when the commission considers them next month or in January, several staff members said.

The biggest concern about allowing more nets in the area - four exist there now - is their potential effect on bottle-nosed dolphins.

Mark Swingle, director of research and conservation at the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach, said at least 40 dolphins have died after entangling in existing pound nets along those beaches in the past 10 years.

He described the waters under consideration at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay as hosting some of the densest populations of dolphins on the East Coast during summer months.

If more nets were allowed, Swingle said, federal regulators probably would intervene and impose new pound-netting limits to protect dolphins in all of Virginia waters.

The vote Tuesday ended a month of meetings and anxiety among several Bayfront communities. Residents said they found out about the nets from a small legal ad in the newspaper.

Under state rules, property owners who live within 500 yards of a proposed pound net must receive a public notice. But one net would have been 501 yards from shore, the other about 1,600 yards. So no notices were sent.

"If we had known earlier, I think your mail boxes would have been overflowing," waterfront resident Lisa Bailey told the commission.

Bailey said the Shore Drive area has boomed with condominiums, businesses and recreational opportunities.

This new landscape, she says, is not the place for heavy commercial-fishing activity. City Councilman Jim Wood agreed, as did hotel operators, condo associations, civic groups and environmentalists.

Dirk Sanford, a commercial fisherman who also lives in the area, requested permits for the two nets.

He said "lots of misinformation" about pound nets, their threats to marine life and his business intentions have been spread in recent days.

Sanford said he may install smaller nets that do not require public hearings. He said Virginia Beach would benefit from more fresh fish for sale, more jobs for struggling watermen and a continuation of a fishing practice that has existed for decades.

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com