Go ahead and call Evan Gadow a Boy Scout.
The shellfish farmer, lifelong North Carolinian, husband and card-carrying Eagle Scout, the Boy Scouts of America’s highest achievement, had a record as pure as the driven snow.
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“I pride myself on that,” he said. “I’ve never gotten into trouble before. I’ve never even gotten a parking ticket.”
That changed this past July, when North Carolina Marine Patrol authorities charged Gadow with four misdemeanors, charges he and other shellfish farmers argue are too harsh for what they contend are clerical errors and minor permit violations.
Shellfish farmers, including Gadow, initiated a punishment-doesn’t-fit-the-crime rallying cry last month to members of the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission in what is sure to be a push for changes to laws that pertain to the industry.
“Currently (Division of Marine Fisheries) can levy serious criminal charges for what are minor noncompliance issues that should be handled in the civil fashion,” North Carolina Shellfish Growers Association President Chris Matteo said at the commission’s Nov. 21 meeting in Emerald Isle. “It’s our opinion that shellfish farmers should only face stiff criminal charges for egregious criminal behavior.”
One such example, he said, would be a farmer knowingly selling polluted oysters to unsuspecting consumers.
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The charges levied against Gadow over the summer stemmed from what he called “clerical oversights” and for not properly marking his lease in Pamlico County’s Bay River. High winds washed away a pole marking a corner of that lease area.
Gadow said he did not know the severity of the charges he faced until he went to court in October. He pleaded guilty to one charge. The rest were dropped.
“Now I carry a black mark on my record equivalent to a DUI, something that will follow me for the rest of my life,” he said to the commission last month.
Shellfish farmers are required to sign each permit for which they apply. Those permits specify that anyone who does not adhere to the conditions of a permit face its suspension or revocation.
The permits do not, however, explain that state marine patrol officers have the power to levy “serious criminal charges” for violating a condition, Matteo said.
These charges include Class A1 misdemeanors, the most serious of misdemeanor offenses in the state. They carry sentences of up to 150 days in jail and fines.
Class A1 misdemeanors include an array of assault charges, including those committed using a deadly weapon, those inflicting serious injury, assault on a female, a child under 12, a state officer employee, or pointing a gun.
Zach Harrison, North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries Habitat and Enhancement Section chief, explained that the commercial sale of any fish is written into law and those laws specifies which charges should be levied against alleged violators.
“Shellfish leases are defined by law and how we can go through that process and grant people leases of public trust water to be able to use for that purpose,” he said. “I think the tough part between being defined in the law, there’s also a lot of trickiness and important pieces that we are looking at to keep the industry going and keep it safe.”
Coastal states must adhere to federal requirements prescribed by the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference, which manages the National Shellfish Sanitation Program. The regulations established under that program are designed to prevent shellfish-related poisoning among consumers.
“There’s a lot of safety pieces that are public health related or otherwise that we have to be very particular about, both to keep that compliance up and also just to generally keep people safe,” Harrison said.
“For the most part, growers are very in tune to that and don’t want to violate (the regulations) because it runs the risk of hurting their business. It’s our role to guide and make sure that the industry is moving in a safe way for growth that isn’t going to have some disease outbreak,” Harrison continued. “Really a lot of those growers, as they build up their industry, it gets a lot further past the farmers markets and local markets. We’re proud that our oysters are showing up in Michelin star restaurants and states like California and all over the U.S.”
Also challenging, he said, is the fact that the division’s marine patrol has less than 50 officers to cover North Carolina’s coast, which includes more than 300 miles of ocean shoreline and more than 12,000 miles of estuarine shore.
The division has hired an aquaculture inspector, a position funded in the legislative budget passed last year, to not only inspect but educate growers “on what those safe methods look like,” Harrison said.
“We felt like it was a better move for the industry to purpose that position toward making sure people are aware of those and being a resource as opposed to simply trying to go after people,” he continued. “The division in general is not interested in trying to go after people. If there’s a law on the books and someone violates that law, marine patrol has no choice but to pursue that. No one who showed up (at the commission meeting) and spoke to us was someone new to us. We all know them and work with them and continue to work with them.”
Harrison said commercial fishers are given paperwork that explains their legally required commercial licenses have a fiscal expiration of June 30.
In the week or two leading up to that date, commercial fishers line up past the doors of the division’s Morehead City office to renewal their licenses, he said.
Gadow said he had recently moved from Burgaw to New Bern when his shellfish license renewal paperwork was sent in the mail. His mail was not forwarded to his new address by the renewal deadline.
“I’ve had the license for the last six years,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s just an honest mistake.”
Harrison said the division actively works with shellfish growers on recommendations in how to run efficiently.
“We’ve talked to a lot of growers who are appreciative of that,” he said. “The hard part is, we have a complex set of laws that ultimately result in a contract for water that belongs to the people of the state of North Carolina, that our job is as the state to manage. So it’s tough because there’s a line between following the legal processes and making sure that we are doing so equitably and safely and fair while also making it efficient for the growers.”
Matteo told the commission last month that shellfish growers are not asking to go unregulated.
“We’re asking to be treated fairly as we farm the world’s best sustainable protein, clean our estuaries and repopulate our public trust stock of marine species,” he said in a follow-up telephone interview.
He said charges that have been levied against a few shellfish farmers in the past 16 months have “gotten a little out of hand.”
“They’re just civil issues or minor noncompliance issues that a grower would need to be called out on and asked to remedy, or their permit should be suspended,” Matteo said. “Hopefully they’re done charging shellfish farmers like criminals unless they’re doing something way out of bounds that warrants a criminal charge. I have no doubt we’ll end up changing what needs to be changed. These charges should be civil. It’s more a matter of making sure that current laws aren’t misinterpreted and levied against the people and resources they’re meant to protect.”
