North Carolina Fishing Reports

Capt_Dave

HELP SAVE THE NEW RIVER AND NEW TOPSAIL INLETS

The Greater Topsail Island Chamber of Commerce is urging citizens of Topsail Island and tourists to contact their representatives. You can do this by going on the following site and follow their directions:

www.FryingPanTower.com

The Chamber has also adopted a Resolution.

R E S O L U T I O N

WHEREAS, insufficient dredging, coupled with recent hurricanes, has caused the New River and New Topsail Inlets to become choked with sand to the degree that the U.S. Coast Guard is no longer able to access the channel markers/buoys, and is being forced to remove the markers entirely, and

WHEREAS, this will result in the inlets becoming Ã¢â‚¬Å“non-navigableÃ¢â‚¬Â and declared Ã¢â‚¬Å“closed,Ã¢â‚¬Â in practical terms signifying that without dredging, and replacing the markers, these inlets will simply cease to exist, and at the minimum, loss of these channels will have broad economic, environmental and boating safety impacts at the local, county and ultimately State levels, and

WHEREAS, failure to restore funding for the dredging required to maintain these inlets can result in the following potentially adverse effects:

Safety of boaters will become imperiled. Many will try to navigate the unmarked shoals. Loss of life can be expected with rescue attempts impeded, as access to marooned vessels will be denied.
Commercial fishing will be heavily impacted. Trawlers, unable to use traditional inlets, will be forced to make long circuitous routes to reach ocean waters. Many commercial fishermen will be financially unable to bear the additional cost of operations and seek other means of livelihood.
Charter boat operators will be required to run long distances to Bogue or Masonboro Inlets to access their fishing grounds. This added distance will likely add as much as 1 Ã‚Â½ to 2 hours of transportation to every trip. This increased distance and travel time will increase fuel and other related costs. This will result in the charter boat captains having to increase trip prices and thereby cause them to be much less competitive with operators located in the immediate vicinity of navigable inlets.
Fewer recreational boaters will keep their boats in Onslow and Pender Counties. Marinas will then lose much of their large dollar business (re-powering, overhaul work, custom upfitting, and many other types of boat maintenance work). The result will be decreases in slip prices, fuel sales and service work.
We can expect a severe impact on tourism Ã¢â‚¬â€œ one of our principal economic engines. Sport and recreational fishermen who fish ocean waters off our shores will seek other sites that have navigable access to the ocean. Marinas, restaurants, motels, and other commercial enterprises related to tourism, as well as the permanent residential and vacation and commercial Real Estate markets, will be severely impacted. This translates to significant losses in the tax base, including sales and occupancy taxes, as well as revenues and related taxes of all types across the spectrums of tourism and permanent residency.
In the environmental area, the closing and ultimate loss of these inlets may have a deleterious impact on our estuaries and wetlands, as well as on fisheries, both fin and shell, on the waterway side of Topsail Island.
The current highly active real estate market will decelerate. Many prospective buyers for new and used homes consider this area because of its access to the ocean afforded by the inlets. Without the access, they will look elsewhere. We can expect a long-term downward spiral in our real estate market with an attendant decrease in our tax base.
Even our not-for-profit charitable resources will be affected. Fishing tournaments hosted by entities such as civic organizations will be unable to generate the funds that support the youth, elderly, and needy of our communities. That burden will now fall increasingly to our counties.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Board of Directors of The Greater

Topsail Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, that the Chamber urgently requests that a concerted effort be made by our elected officials to restore funding to dredge New River Inlet and New Topsail Inlet on a regular basis, such that it will be maintainable on a year-round basis by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and thereby be useable by the many commercial, charter and recreational boaters who access the ocean via these inlets.


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