Releases – May 31, 2012
The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission celebrated the opening of the Hampstead Boating Access Area in Pender County Friday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by state and county officials.
The Commission had long been searching for a site in the Hampstead area, which is popular with both anglers and recreational boaters, said Mark Hamlett, design services chief with the Commission’s Division of Engineering Services. Coastal land is both expensive and scarce, and the closest Commission-managed ramps are in Wrightsville, which is 17 miles away, and the busiest ramp in the state, and Surf City, which is 5 miles away.
“We are certain this site will be popular, and have wanted a boating access in this area for a long time,” Hamlett said. “This is a great example of how partnerships and cooperation can make a project happen.”
The 6.6-acre Hampstead site provides access to the Intracoastal Waterway. It has three launch lanes, along with floating and fixed docks. The gravel lot has about 70 parking spaces, including those for trailered and single vehicles. Pender County purchased the property with a $2.8 million grant from the North Carolina Waterfront Access and Marine Industry (WAMI) fund.
The site was built using the WAMI grant, money from sales of the Coastal Recreational Fishing License and motorboat registration receipts. The Commission also received a $500 grant from the N.C. Public Access Foundation toward construction of the site.
The Sneads Ferry Lions Club is already gearing up for its favorite fund raising event, the annual Pinfish Tournament. This year the event will be on June 23, 2012, at the Sneads Ferry Community Center, 126 Park Lane, Sneads Ferry. Contact a member for entry forms at (910) 320-1182, or do a Google search for the Sneads Ferry Lions Club and follow the prompts to the web page where you can download the forms.
This is the 12th Annual Pinfish Tournament, and there is some real fun planned for participants. There will be a kids fishing booth where the young ones are promised a fine catch with every cast. The “Fishbowl” tables will be overflowing with great consolation prizes. There will be food and drink for all the anglers, and bragging rights and prize money for the winners in the categories of pinfish, trout, and flounder (as well as Junior and Lady Angler).
The entry fee is $50 per angler in advance of the event and $60 on the day of the event. Every angler gets a “Fishbowl” prize that can easily equal or even exceed the entry fee.
Let’s not lose sight of the facts behind this fun. Sometimes a person in the community needs real help in a time of crisis. Helping these people is the main mission of the Lions Club, and this event helps fund the effort. Every penny earned is spent locally.
NOAA’s National Weather Service in Eastern North Carolina will begin testing a new “Beach Hazards Statement” to provide a single location for all coastal and beach hazards information, including the expected timing and impacts of the hazard and recommended actions for preparedness and safety.
The agency launched a Weather-Ready Nation initiative in 2011 that has spurred improvements in communicating risks to the public for many types of hazards. This initiative was prompted when Weather Service staff realized that many rescues, injuries, and deaths in coastal areas were related to beach hazards not currently addressed in official watches, warnings, and advisories. The new statement will include information on routine coastal hazards, such as rip currents, and unusual ecological hazards identified by NOAA’s National Ocean Service.
The Newport/Morehead City, NC office is one of six National Weather Service forecast offices that will begin piloting the new tool on May 15, along with Grand Rapids, Mich.; San Francisco Bay Area, Calif.; New Orleans/Baton Rouge, La.; Seattle, Wash.; and Tampa Bay, Fla.
Beach Hazards Statements will inform the public about a wide range of hazards, including rip currents and rough seas, unusually cold water temperatures, potential for lightning along the shoreline, high heat indices, and unusual wave conditions. The statement also may include non-weather related ecological hazards impacting beaches, such as chemical spills, harmful algal blooms, high bacteria levels in the ocean, dangerous marine wildlife near beaches, and potentially unsafe marine debris.
“We’re simplifying beach hazard information to make it more accessible to the American public,” said Rich Bandy, Meteorologist in Charge at the National Weather Service in Newport/Morehead City. “Whether you’re taking your family to the beach for a relaxing day or loading up the boat for a day of fishing, these new statements will provide situational awareness of the conditions you may face so you can plan accordingly.”
Beach Hazard Statements will be issued for a given coastal area as needed within 12-24 hours of a threat. The statement may be issued further in advance if there is high confidence in the forecast or if the threat is widespread. This new product is being tested as part of the National Weather Service’s effort to build a Weather-Ready Nation. Equipped with valuable information about beach hazards, coastal residents and visitors will be better equipped to make decisions to protect their health and safety.
Before possibly expanding this initiative to other parts of the country, the agency will gauge the success and value of the new service. National Weather Service partners and customers, including members of the public, are encouraged to provide feedback at: weather.gov/survey/nws-survey.php?code=CHMBHS. The test will continue until further notice unless the agency receives significant negative feedback.
North Carolina commercial and recreational fish and shellfish harvests decreased slightly in 2011. The commercial harvest decreased by about 6 percent to 67.5 million pounds, according to landings reports collected by the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries’ Trip Ticket Program. This harvest had an estimated dockside value of $72.8 million. Recreational landings dropped about 3 percent to 13.2 million pounds, according to division Marine Recreational Information Program estimates.
“The decrease in landings corresponds to a decrease in effort,” said Louis Daniel, director of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries. “Commercial trips were down by 11 percent and recreational trips were down by 17 percent in 2011.”
As usual in commercial landings, blue crab topped the state’s commercial harvest, both in pounds and value. Fishermen landed 30 million pounds of blue crab, with a dockside value of $21 million in 2011. Shrimp took the No. 2 spot, followed by Atlantic croaker at No. 3. Commercial fishermen landed 5.1 million pounds of shrimp, which had an estimated dockside value of $11 million. Fishermen landed 5 million pounds of croaker, valued at $3.1 million.
Commercial fishermen landed 3.5 million pounds of menhaden in 2011, a 172 percent jump from 2010, pushing menhaden to No. 4 in the top commercial species list. The increase was due to a demand for bait in the crab pot fishery. Menhaden dropped out of the list of top five commercial species after the last menhaden reduction factory in the state closed in 2005. The 2011 menhaden landings had an estimated dockside value of $334,299.
Summer flounder rounded out the top five commercial species landed in 2011. Commercial fishermen landed 2.9 million pounds of summer flounder valued at $6 million.
As for recreational landings, Dolphinfish continued to top the list of recreational fish harvested. Anglers landed 3.5 million pounds of dolphinfish in 2011, a 7.6 percent increase from the previous year. Striped bass jumped from the No. 4 slot in 2010 to No. 2 last year, due to high landings in the ocean fishery in January and February 2011. Cooler water temperatures caused the fish to migrate into North Carolina waters in 2011, something that does not happen in warmer winters. Anglers caught 2 million pounds of striped bass in 2011, up 350 percent from 2010.
Bluefish, yellowfin tuna, and spanish mackerel rounded out the top five recreational species landed in 2011. Anglers landed 993,543 pounds of bluefish (up 4.4 percent), 811,673 pounds of yellowfin tuna (down 1.5 percent), and 470,647 pounds of spanish mackerel (down 17 percent). Catches of cobia were down 70 percent, as were porgies and amberjacks landings.
For more information about commercial landings statistics, contact Alan Bianchi, Commercial Statistics Program manager, at (252) 808-8092 or Alan.Bianchi@ncdenr.gov.
For information about recreational landings, contact Doug Mumford, Recreational Statistics Program manager, at (252) 948-3876 or Doug.Mumford@ncdner.gov.
Atlantic coastal states from Massachusetts through North Carolina have scheduled their hearings to gather public comment on Draft Addendum III to Amendment 6 to the Atlantic Striped Bass Fishery Management Plan. The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries scheduled meeting is June 19, 2012; at 6:00 PM, at the Dare County Administrative Building in the Dare County Commissioners Meeting Room, 954 Marshall C. Collins Drive, Manteo, North Carolina. The contact is Kathy Rawls at (252) 264-3911.
The Draft Addendum proposes implementing a mandatory commercial tagging program for all states or jurisdictions with commercial striped bass fisheries and increasing penalties for illegally harvested fish. These options are intended to help prevent commercial striped bass quota overages and the illegal harvest of striped bass, both of which have the potential to undermine the sustainability of striped bass populations, as well as reduce the economic opportunities of commercial fishermen who are legally participating in the fishery.
Options under consideration in the implementation of a tagging program include increased accounting of unused tags, timely reporting of catch, the point at which tagging must occur, standardization of tag type, and development of biological metrics for determining state/jurisdiction tag quantity.
The Draft Addendum responds to recommendations of the Interstate Watershed Task Force (IWTF). The IWTF conducted a multi-year, multi-jurisdictional investigation on illegal commercial striped bass harvest within Chesapeake Bay which resulted in over $1.6 million dollars in fines levied against 19 individuals and three corporations for more than one million pounds of illegal striped bass harvested estimated to be worth up to seven million dollars. The investigation revealed that some of the control measures in place for regulating the harvest of striped bass were ineffective or inadequately designed to maximize compliance.
The investigation also found that greater accountability of wholesalers would be difficult to achieve without uniform tags (colors, design) and tagging requirements, valid year and size limits inscribed on tags, and increased dealer compliance education.
Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on the Draft Addendum either by attending state public hearings or providing written comment. The Draft Addendum is available on the Commission website (www.asmfc.org) under Breaking News or by contacting the Commission at (703) 842-0740. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM (EST) on July 13, 2012, and should be forwarded to Kate Taylor, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 1050 N. Highland St., Suite 200 A-N, Arlington, VA 22201; (703) 842-0741 (FAX); or ktaylor@asmfc.org (Subject line: Atlantic Striped Bass Draft Addendum III).
