Releases – September 1, 2016
Sunken vessels, aircraft, train boxcars, and old bridges are all underwater treasures located along North Carolina’s coast, strategically situated to promote fishing opportunities. Now, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries Artificial Reef Guide will show you where to find them.
This new 131-page, full-color guide is printed on waterproof paper and provides detailed information about each of the state’s 62 reefs, including diagrams of each site showing all reef material, GPS coordinates, and material deployment dates.
The guides are available for free on a first-come, first-serve basis at the Division of Marine Fisheries’ Headquarters in Morehead City and at other division offices in Wilmington, Washington, Elizabeth City, and Manteo. Individuals may pick a book up in-person between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday (excluding holidays). The division will limit distribution of the guide to one book per person.
As a supplement to the paper guide, the division has posted an online interactive reef guide at http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf/artificial-reefs-program. This web application offers all the features of the paper guide, with the addition of side-scan sonar imagery, which creates a picture of the ocean floor for each reef. The web guide also includes mapping tools for measuring distance, searching, and custom printing.
Artificial reefs are manmade underwater structures built to promote marine life in areas with otherwise featureless bottom. North Carolina builds reefs to support healthy fish populations, create accessible fishing and diving opportunities, and, in some places, restore degraded habitat for oysters.
The reef guide and web application were funded by a $176,000 award from the North Carolina Coastal Recreational Fishing License Grant Program.
For more information, contact Amy Comer, biologist with the division’s Artificial Reef Program, at (252) 808-8054 or Amy.Comer@ncdenr.gov.
Emerald Isle Parks and Recreation and The Reel Outdoors are sponsoring the 14th Annual Gordie McAdams Speckled Trout Surf Fishing Tournament.
The tournament will run from 8:00 am Saturday, October 15, through November 26, 2016. Registration is free, and The Reel Outdoors will be providing prizes for the top three anglers.
Registration is from September 26-October 13, and The Reel Outdoors is the official weigh-in station.
All trout must be caught by fishing on foot (surf, pier, inlet, or sound) from Fort Macon to Emerald Isle; no boats. See complete rules on the back of the registration form, which will be available on September 26 at The Reel Outdoors and at the Emerald Isle Parks and Recreation Community Center.
Registration forms and rules may also be downloaded at www.emeraldisle-nc.org/eiprd. Contact Emerald Isle Parks and Recreation for further information or questions at (252) 354-6350.
The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission has fast-tracked the review schedule for two state fishery management plans.
The commission voted last week to proceed this fiscal year with a review of the state’s Blue Crab Fishery Management Plan, which had been slated for fiscal year 2018-2019, to give the commission more management flexibility. The commission also voted to accelerate the review of the state’s Estuarine Striped Bass Plan by one year to 2017-2018 due to possible problems with reproduction in the Tar/Pamlico, Neuse, and Cape Fear rivers.
State law requires the Division of Marine Fisheries to review state fishery management plans once every five years and revise them as needed. The commission sets this review schedule in August each year.
Amendment 2 to the North Carolina Blue Crab Fishery Management Plan, adopted in November 2013, uses an adaptive management framework that requires annual evaluation of three biological indicators of the state of the fishery. Management changes are required if the indicators meet pre-determined thresholds for three consecutive years. The evaluation this year found that a management threshold was exceeded, and the commission adopted stricter blue crab regulations in May. Commission Chairman Sammy Corbett said that several commission members would like more flexibility in management actions than is allowed under the current plan.
The Estuarine Striped Bass Fishery Management Plan is a joint plan between the Division of Marine Fisheries and the Wildlife Resources Commission. Both agencies recommended initiating the plan review earlier after recent DNA testing of fin clips taken from striped bass in the Cape Fear, Neuse, and Tar/Pamlico rivers showed that a majority of the fish tested are of hatchery origin, which could indicate that very little natural reproduction is occurring.
However, the majority of samples tested so far came only from spawning grounds or the middle river in each system. More samples, including some from the lower portions of the rivers, have been sent to a South Carolina genetics lab for analysis. The commission approved $21,412 from its Conservation Fund to pay for this study. Results are expected to be available for the commission’s November meeting.
In addition, the commission slated the review of the Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan to begin as soon as a valid stock assessment is available. The results of a coast-wide stock assessment are expected to be available in the second half of 2017.
In other business, the commission: (1) elected Joe Shute as vice chairman of the commission; (2) set the number of Standard Commercial Fishing Licenses available through an Eligibility Pool for the 2016-2017 fiscal year at 100; (3) approved the Coastal Habitat Protection Plan 2016 Annual Report; (4) asked the chairman to send a letter to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Weakfish Management Board asking it to address weakfish bycatch mortality in the shrimp trawl fishery in its next stock assessment; (5) asked the division to evaluate the need for state management of false albacore; and (6) approved notice of text and associated fiscal analysis for a slate of proposed rules, including rules to implement amendments to the Oyster and Hard Clam fishery management plans, to take to public hearing in October.
The daily trip limit for the commercial harvest of vermilion snapper in federal waters of the South Atlantic is reduced from 1,000 pounds gutted weight to 500 pounds gutted weight, effective 12:01 a.m. (local time) August 28, 2016. NOAA Fisheries has determined 75 percent of the July-December quota of 431,460 pounds whole weight will be landed by August 28, 2016.
Reduction of the commercial vermilion snapper trip limit when 75 percent of the July-December quota is reached in federal waters of the South Atlantic complies with regulations implemented under the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region. The 500-pound gutted weight trip limit applies to vessels with a South Atlantic Unlimited Snapper-Grouper Permit fishing for vermilion snapper in or from the federal waters in the South Atlantic region.
The 500-pound gutted weight trip limit will remain in effect until the end of the current July – December 2016 fishing season or until the quota is reached and vermilion snapper closes, whichever occurs first.
