Releases – July 24, 2014
Operation North State (ONS), its supporters, and volunteers are calling on North Carolina’s People, Places, Products, and Pride to help support the 1st Annual Peer Fishin’ Festival. The event will be held Friday, October 17, at Ocean Crest Pier on Oak Island.
ONS is hosting 300 Wounded Warriors, Disabled Veterans, and their respective caregivers and/or friends to a great day of pier fishing and friendships. According to Operational North State’s Founder/Volunteer Terry Snyder, “For the past two years, ONS continued to receive requests from Wounded Warriors, Disabled Veterans, and their respective caregivers to provide a coastal fishing event. In June, we decided it’s time to fulfill this much needed recreational therapeutic outing.”
ONS currently hosts bass/crappie fishing festivals on Badin Lake on the Yadkin River. Again, at the request of Wounded Warriors, Disabled Veterans, and their respective caregivers, ONS will expand to five Top Shelf Fishin’ Festivals in 2015. The new events will take place on Lake Norman, Jordan Lake, and in New Bern.
The 1st Annual Peer Fishin’ Festival is free! However, it’s limited to the first 300 “Fishing Guests” (Wounded Warriors, Disabled Veterans, and respective caregivers and/or friends) to sign up. To register, send an email to mailbox@operationnorthstate.com. Provide your name, email address, telephone number, branch of military service, and what North Carolina town you call home.
Pier-mates (folks that fish NC’s piers and surf daily) will be volunteering their expertise, assistance, and equipment. Lunch and refreshments will be served, and there will be prizes. Ocean Crest Pier is donating the pier. ONS is expecting a full pier of 400 folks including 300 fishing guests, volunteers, sponsors, and supporters.
ONS is requesting the following assistance: (1) register a Wounded Warrior / Disabled Veteran; (2) Volunteer; (3) Distribute and post the event flyer, as well as share with email and Facebook friends, too; (4) Donate product and/or cash for the lunch, snacks, beverages, and prizes
For additional information or to show your support, contact Terry Snyder, ONS Founder/Volunteer, at mailbox@operationnorthstate.com or call (336) 764-5967.
Event updates are available on Facebook: Operation North State – Photo Album – 2014 1st Annual Peer Fishin’ Festival.
The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries is accepting proposals for the Boating Infrastructure Grant Program for federal fiscal year 2015.
The Boating Infrastructure Grant is a program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that reimburses up to 75 percent of costs for projects that construct, renovate, or maintain tie-up facilities and related amenities for recreational transient vessels that are at least 26 feet long. The grant program was authorized by Congress in 1998 and is funded by excise taxes on fishing equipment and motorboat fuel.
The Division of Marine Fisheries serves as the liaison between projects in North Carolina and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the Boating Infrastructure Grant Program. Proposals must be submitted to the division to be considered for this funding opportunity.
Some examples of potentially eligible activities include transient slips, mooring buoys, day-docks, floating and fixed piers and breakwaters, dinghy docks, restrooms, showers, laundry facilities, retaining walls, bulkheads, dockside utilities (water, electric, telephone, Internet), sewage pumpout stations, recycling and trash receptacles, navigational aids, and marine fueling stations. Applicants must have or intend to construct dedicated dockage for transient vessels to receive funding for these eligible activities.
Boating Infrastructure Grant funds are distributed each year. Grants are available on a two-tiered basis. For Tier 1 (Basic) grants, all states may receive up to $100,000 per grant cycle as long as proposals meet the program’s guidelines. Tier 2 (Competitive) grants are reserved for large-scale, more expensive undertakings and are awarded on a nationwide competitive basis. For this funding opportunity, applicants may apply for up to $100,000 under Tier 1 and up to $1.5 million under Tier 2.
For information about grant availability, project eligibility, and proposal development, please visit the Division of Marine Fisheries’ website at http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf, or contact Kelly Price, federal aid coordinator for the division, at P.O. Box 769, Morehead City, NC 28557-0769. Price may also be reached at (252) 808-8168 or (800) 682-2632 (in North Carolina only) or at Kelly.Price@ncdenr.gov. The deadline for applications to be received by the state division is Aug. 28. Electronic submission is preferred.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is developing a saltwater recreational fisheries policy. The Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) outlines fishery management legal requirements, but this new policy will make clear the values NMFS will keep in mind when establishing regulations that could affect saltwater anglers.
Further, the policy will serve as the underpinning to the Agency’s Recreational Fishing Action Agenda. This is a direct outgrowth of their April 2014 Recreational Saltwater Fishing Summit, which is part of their ongoing effort since 2010 to improve Agency science and stewardship for recreational saltwater fisheries nationwide.
NMFS is currently accepting public comments on this issue. Comments are due by Sept. 12, 2014. Here are a couple of useful links regarding the policy development including the policy website, fact sheet, and discussion guide: www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/management/recreational/policy/index.html.
Here is a link to a video about the summit including interviews with participants: www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/management/recreational/2014_summit/index.html.
You can direct further comments, questions, or concerns to Danielle Rioux, Recreational Fisheries Policy Specialist, NOAA Fisheries, U.S. Department of Commerce, at (301) 427-8516 or Danielle.Rioux@noaa.gov.
Commercial harvest of snowy grouper in South Atlantic federal waters will close at 12:01 a.m. (local time) on July 25, 2014. Commercial harvest will reopen at 12:01 a.m. (local time) on January 1, 2015. The 2014 commercial catch limit is 82,900 pounds gutted weight. Reports indicate that commercial landings are rapidly approaching the 2014 catch limit.
The operator of a vessel with a federal commercial permit for snapper-grouper that is landing snowy grouper for sale must have landed and bartered, traded, or sold such snowy grouper prior to 12:01 a.m. (local time), July 25, 2014. The prohibition on sale does not apply to sale or purchase of snowy grouper that were harvested, landed ashore, and sold prior to 12:01 a.m. (local time) July 25, 2014, and held in cold storage by a dealer or processor.
During the closure: (1) harvest or possession of snowy grouper is limited to the recreational bag and possession limits; (2) recreational harvest of snowy grouper is currently prohibited; (3) sale and purchase of snowy grouper is prohibited; (4) the closure applies in both state and federal waters for a person onboard a vessel with a federal snapper-grouper permit.
This closure is necessary to protect the snapper-grouper population.
Lionfish, with their distinctive stripes and venomous spines, continue to proliferate the North Carolina coast. In recent weeks, North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher staff collected more than four dozen of the invasive species during routine dives locally.
“The species’ negative impact on local waters is well known,” said Aquarium Curator Hap Fatzinger. “Lionfish were everywhere at our dive locations. We responsibly removed quantities of animals and are now working to distribute them to other Aquariums to help educate the public.”
Fatzinger explained Lionfish (Pterois volitan) are native to the Indo-Pacific region, but are now common in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico. The species sport venomous spines harmful to humans, reproduce rapidly, have few natural predators in Atlantic waters, and are ravenous eaters, preying especially on young native fish populations.
In recent years, marine environmental and conservation groups have worked to educate the public and introduce eradication methods. Organized dive round-ups and adding lionfish to seafood menus have become more popular.
Visitors to the Aquarium can see lionfish in the Exotic Aquatics gallery.
