Blown away by bluefin rule, NC angler blows up inflatable floatie in protest, plans to fish from it

Whatever floats your boat -- NC angler registers dinosaur-shaped floatie as vessel to fish for bluefin tuna

Dave Harding, a representative for the pier-fishing advocacy group Fishing Piers. is protesting a regulation he says unfairly prohibits shore-based anglers from fishing for, catching, landing and keeping bluefin tuna. | wavy.com

NAGS HARBOR, NC – Deflated by a rule that blew up a hot bluefin tuna bite, an Outer Banks angler says he’ll protest by blowing up an inflatable and fishing from it. 

Not an inflatable boat though. No, he's talking about a “floatie," one of those pool-toy inflatables that come shaped like dinosaurs, unicorns, etc.

“An insane law demands an insane protest,” says Dave Harding, a representative for the pier-fishing advocacy group Fishing Piers, speaking on camera in a Wavy.com news report. In the interview he’s holding a cartoonish, inflatable dinosaur he named TunaSauras. By obtaining a vessel permit for the floatie, he says, “I can now go fish legally from the pier, from the water, and be able to legally retain the tuna.”

Harding is protesting a regulation he says unfairly prohibits shore-based anglers from fishing for, catching, landing and keeping bluefin tuna. 

Normally, catching a bluefin from the shore or a pier is a pretty rare occurrence – they’re usually caught far offshore (this bite was documented for several years in the TV show “Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks.”) But in April, some big blues swam in close to shore around Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head. Soon thereafter, some local anglers began catching big bluefins from the pier – catches of a lifetime, really, for anglers without boats – drawing the attention of local TV news crews. 

That is, until a representative from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showed up at the pier with a cease-and-desist message.

“A NOAA law enforcement officer visited Jennette’s Pier this morning and advised management that it is illegal for our customers to fish for bluefin tuna,” a Jennette’s Pier rep says in an April 8 statement posted to its Facebook page. NOAA advised Pier staff, according to the statement, that it’s “a violation to fish for, catch, possess, retain, or land Atlantic bluefin tuna, blue marlin, white marlin, or roundscale spearfish without a valid permit or endorsement." 

Furthermore, Jennette’s Pier says in its statement, the NOAA officer advised staff to “remove all references to the bluefin bite from our social media platforms because it is considered promoting an illegal activity.”

In early April, some anglers at Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head, NC, began catching big bluefin tuna. That was illegal, a NOAA rep informed staff at the pier. Fishing for bluefin requires a vessel permit -- and therefore, a vessel. | wavy.com

North Carolina regulations require that “all vessels that fish for, or may incidentally take and retain” any Atlantic Highly Migratory Species – of which bluefin tuna is one – “must have a vessel permit.” 

Note the wording – “all vessels that fish for,” not “all persons.” So, by the letter of the law, all persons that fish for Atlantic Highly Migratory Species need a vessel permit. And to get a vessel permit, you need a vessel. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issues the permits. NMFS is a federal agency within NOAA, itself an agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. Fishing without a vessel permit for bluefin and other Highly Migratory Species carries a $2,000 fine.

Harding is protesting the vessel-permit regulation, he says, because it disenfranchises anglers without the funds to buy, rent or charter a boat. “This is access discrimination; this is economic discrimination,” he says in the Wavy.com news report.

Angler Tyler Parker agrees.

“This is a classic example of government overreach,” he says in a comment on Jeanette Pier’s Facebook post about the rule. “Punishing those who can’t afford or don’t want a boat over a stupid $25 permit that does nothing except take money from your pocket into theirs.”

Harding, to draw attention to his cause, masterminded a stunt designed to generate media exposure – he’s planning to fish for bluefin near Jeanette Pier while sitting on Tunasauras, his dinosaur-shaped inflatable floatie. Because he purchased a vessel permit for Tunasauras, he says, the blow-up dino is now an “official North Carolina vessel.” 

Still, Harding doesn’t plan to sail too far out to sea on S.S. Tunasaurus. By his interpretation of the regulation, he says, he can fish from it “sitting on this in an inch of water,” or even on shore. “There’s no regulations that said the vessel has to be in the water,” he says.

Harding has welcomed other land-locked anglers to join him in protest. He’s circulating this petition, which reads, in part:

“Public piers and accessible shorelines are the heart of America’s fishing culture. To criminalize recreational anglers for casting into a natural event — one that is legal for those with a boat— is a gross inequity and a dangerous precedent.

“This petition stands for fairness, inclusion, and equal rights for all recreational fishermen—regardless of whether they fish from a boat or from the shore.”

The situation in Nags Head is not unique, according to the petition: 

“This is not just a North Carolina problem — it is a national coastal access issue. Millions of anglers across the U.S. rely on piers, bridges, jetties, and surf zones to fish. These individuals are often:

• Families
• Veterans
• Youth
• Seniors
• People with disabilities
• Individuals from low-income communities”

Fishing on SI has contacted the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to verify if Harding’s interpretation of the vessel-permit regulation is accurate, and if it’s indeed legal for him to fish for bluefin tuna from an inflatable floatie. A reply has not yet been received. This article will be updated following a reply.