Releases – August 26, 2010
The Commercial License Eligibility Board Committee to the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries will meet at 9:30 a.m., Sept. 21, in the conference room, Division of Marine Fisheries, 3441 Arendell St., Morehead City.
Directions for applying for a commercial fishing license can be found on the division website at www.ncfisheries.net. Applications must be submitted by Sept. 3 to be considered at the Sept. 21 meeting.
For more information, contact division license clerk Cristy Giddens at (910) 796-7215 or Cristy.Giddens@ncdenr.gov.
The Labor Day weekend is the last hurrah for summer and one of the busiest times on waterways in North Carolina. To make it a safe holiday, wildlife officers with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission are urging everyone to “boat safe, boat sober.”
Throughout the Labor Day holiday, wildlife officers will be on patrol across the state to enforce boating regulations and conduct vessel safety inspections, in an effort to help minimize the risk of accidents.
“We will concentrate on getting the impaired boat operator off the water,” said Capt. Chris Huebner, the state boating safety coordinator. “Alcohol is a factor in over 20 percent of boating fatalities.”
Operating a recreational vessel while under the influence of an impairing substance or with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher is against the law. The maximum penalty is $1,000 fine and possible jail.
In addition to “Boat Safe, Boat Sober,” wildlife officers remind boaters over the Labor Day holiday:
WEAR A LIFE VEST – North Carolina law requires children younger than 13 to wear an appropriate life vest whenever they are on a recreational vessel that is underway, and it is recommended for everyone.
BLUE LIGHT=NO WAKE – All watercraft must slow to a no wake speed when passing within 100 feet of a patrol boat displaying a flashing blue light. In narrow channels, watercraft must slow to a no wake speed within 50 feet.
MANDATORY BOATING EDUCATION LAW – Anyone younger than 26 operating a vessel powered by a 10 horsepower or greater motor on public waterways must have successfully completed an approved boating safety education course or otherwise be in compliance.
For more information on safe recreational boating or to enroll in a free boating education course offered by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, go to www.ncwildlife.org or call (919) 707-0031.
The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission is well on its way toward adopting a new way to determine when to open waters to bay scallop harvesting.
At a recent meeting in Wilmington, the commission tentatively adopted an amendment to the Bay Scallop Fishery Management Plan that sets up progressive management triggers, based on sampling data from 1984-85, prior to a red tide event in 1987-88.
“This amendment will provide more flexibility in opening bay scallop season when bay scallop abundance meets specific levels,” said Louis Daniel, director of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.
Every year, division biologists sample the abundance of bay scallops in different water bodies. Currently, bay scallop season opens only if the annual sampling shows the abundance of bay scallops in a given water body is at 100 percent of where it was in 1984-85.
Under the proposed new management method, limited harvesting could occur when division sampling indicates bay scallop abundance in a given water body is at 50 percent of the level it was in 1984-85. Trip limits and fishing days would progressively increase if sampling showed bay scallop abundance was at 75 percent or 125 percent of 1984-85 levels.
The draft amendment now goes to the secretary of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Joint Legislative Commission on Seafood and Aquaculture for review. It is scheduled to come back to the commission for final adoption in November, in time for the 2011 bay scallop season.
In other discussion and action last week, the Marine Fisheries Commission:
(1) Recommended Daniel implement a 10 percent bycatch allowance for weakfish up to 1,000 pounds per trip. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission agreed to allow North Carolina to replace the current 100-pound commercial trip limit with this conservation equivalency. A proclamation implementing this measure was issued and can be found on the division website at http://www.ncfisheries.net/procs/procs2k10/FF-66-2010.html.
(2) Recommended Daniel implement trip limits on certain snapper/grouper species in an effort to extend North Carolina’s commercial snapper/grouper fishing season.
The snapper/grouper fishery in the South Atlantic is under stringent federal regulations. Waters off southern Georgia and northern Florida are closed to all hook-and-line snapper/grouper fishing. Strict aggregate quotas are in place for other waters, so that if the limit on one species is caught, fishing closes for the entire shallow water grouper complex.
The commission asked Daniel to reissue an earlier proclamation implementing a 1,500-pound per day commercial trip limit on shallow water snapper/grouper species, of which 500 pounds per day can be gag or black grouper, and amend the commercial hog snapper harvest restrictions in the proclamation to allow a 150-pound per day commercial limit, up to 750 pounds per multi-day trip. The commission also asked Daniel to lower the recreational bag limit on hog snapper. A proclamation was issued setting the recreational bag limit at 5 fish per person per day. The proclamation can be found on the division website at http://www.ncfisheries.net/procs/procs2k10/FF-65-2010.html.
(3) Authorized Daniel to delay opening Core Sound and modify the opening of Pamlico Sound Gill Net Restricted Area to large mesh gill net fishing to maximize harvest of southern flounder.
(4) Set up a Sea Turtle Advisory Committee, under a lawsuit settlement agreement.
Appointed were Jean Beasley, director of the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, Surf City; Marvin Beacham, commercial fisherman, North River; Lori Brinn, environmental education specialist, Raleigh; Steve Everhart, Wilmington District manager, N.C. Division of Coastal Management; Matthew Godfrey, sea turtle biologist, N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission; Craig Harms, veterinarian for the N.C. Aquariums and the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center and associate professor at N.C. State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology, Morehead City; Roger Harris, commercial fisherman, Atlantic; Robert Lorenz, recreational fisherman, Wilmington; David Pearson, president of Friends of State Parks, Swansboro; Andy Read, professor of marine conservation biology, Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment, Gloucester; Jerry Schill, former executive director of the N.C. Fisheries Association, New Bern; and David Smith, commercial fisherman, Carolina Beach.
(5) Agreed to ask the Joint Legislative Commission on Seafood and Aquaculture to support a bill to clarify that a new state law requiring fishery management plans to end overfishing within two years may not apply to the certain fishery management plans.
(6) Voted to send a draft amendment to the Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan out for public comment. Dates of public meetings will be announced later.
By law, the commission must establish harvest reductions that end overfishing in two years and rebuild the fishery by 2015. Possible management options include increasing the size limit, decreasing the recreational bag limit, season closures, and stiffer commercial gear restrictions.
(7) Received a report on overages from the annual commercial red drum cap from the 2009-10 fishing year.
North Carolina’s commercial red drum harvest operates under a 250,000-pound annual commercial cap that is divided into two sub-seasons, with 150,000 pounds allocated for Sept. 1 to April 30 and 100,000 pounds reserved for May 1 to Aug. 31. If the cap is exceeded in one harvest year, the overage is deducted from the subsequent harvest year.
Daniel told the commission that the 2009-10 red drum landings exceeded the commercial cap by 41,000 pounds. Therefore, the fall sub-season will open Sept. 1 with a 109,000-pound cap.
