Releases June 3, 2010
The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries is seeking public input on a proposed 30-acre coastal artificial reef in New River near Town Point.
River Works at Sturgeon City has proposed and been awarded funding to create an artificial reef in New River. Working in conjunction with the division’s Artificial Reef Program, River Works proposes using material from the U.S. 17 Herbert G. “Buddy” Phillips Bridge replacement project to construct this reef.
The division wants to hear from fishermen and others regarding the types of activity that occur in this area. Crabbing and gill netting practices and recreational fishing and boating activities are of particular interest to the division.
River Works plans to build the reef with a two-year grant, totaling $563,000, funded by revenues from the Coastal Recreational Fishing License.
A review of the project will be presented and comments from the public are desired.
Anglers, commercial fishermen, boaters, and others may comment on the proposed project at the public meeting at 6:00 p.m. on June 10 at the Jacksonville City Hall, City Council Chambers, 815 New Bridge St., Jacksonville.
Written comments will be accepted through June 16 and may be sent by mail to: N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries Artificial Reef Program, P.O. Box 769, Morehead City, N.C. 28557 or by e-mail to jim.francesconi@ncdenr.gov.
For questions or comments prior to the meeting, contact division Artificial Reef Program Director Jim Francesconi at (252) 808-8063 or Jim.Francesconi@ncdenr.gov or Resource Enhancement Section Chief Craig Hardy at (252) 808-8046 or Craig.Hardy@ncdenr.gov.
A popular coastal-region access area has been refurbished and is now open to boaters.
The Federal Point Boating Access Area, off U.S. 421 in Kure Beach, has new ramps, floating docks, a new concrete apron, filled basin and new bulkhead, breakwater and retaining wall. It also has an improved parking lot and is ADA accessible.
Next winter, the parking lot will be paved and steps to the beach will be added.
“The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is continuously looking for opportunities to improve and increase boaters’ access to the public waters of our state,” said Erik Christofferson, chief of the Commission’s Division of Engineering Services. “We are pleased to announce some pretty extensive renovations on this popular coastal site that will make Federal Point an even more popular place for the boaters of our state.”
For more information on boating in North Carolina, visit the boating page on www.ncwildlife.org. And to find a boating access area near you, visit their interactive boating access area locator map on the website.
North Carolina’s 2009 commercial finfish harvest was up by 17 percent over the previous year, but decreased harvest in shrimp and crabs dropped commercial dockside seafood sales by 4 percent in 2009, according to an annual landings report produced by the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.
Total commercial landings were at 68.6 million pounds in 2009, which was 2.5 million pounds lower than in 2008. The total value of commercial landings also dropped from $86.8 million to $77 million.
Total recreational landings were at 13.6 million pounds in 2009, a 15 percent decrease from 2008.
The most notable decrease in commercial landings came in shrimp harvests, which dropped by 43 percent from 2008 to 5.4 million pounds in 2009. This decline contributed to a 7.3 million-pound drop in overall shellfish harvests.
“Both our summer and fall shrimp landings were down from previous years,” said Rich Carpenter, the division’s Southeast District manager. “Environmental conditions, such as rainfall, greatly affect the abundance of shrimp in any given season. Market conditions and the price of gasoline also play key roles in the amount of shrimp brought to the docks.”
Commercial finfish harvests, however, increased 17 percent from 2008 to 32.3 million pounds in 2009.
The most notable increase in commercial finfish landings was with spiny dogfish, which jumped 792 percent to 1.3 million pounds in 2009 due to a quota increase. Bluefish landings increased 22 percent to 2.3 million pounds.
Blue crab continued to top the list of species harvested commercially in the state, with 28.8 million pounds landed in 2009, followed by croaker at 6.1 million pounds, summer flounder at 2.9 million pounds, and southern flounder at 2.4 million pounds.
Dolphinfish remained the top recreational species, with 3.9 million pounds harvested in 2009, followed by bluefish at 971,132 pounds, spanish mackerel at 892,641 pounds, king mackerel at 864,237 pounds, and spotted seatrout at 833,577 pounds.
The report was presented to the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission at its meeting in Raleigh last week. The report can be downloaded from the division website at www.ncfisheries.net/download/2009AnnualNC_FisheriesBulletin.pdf.
For more information, contact division Commercial Statistics Coordinator Alan Bianchi at (252) 808-8092 or Alan.Bianchi@ncdenr.gov.
Raw oysters are prized culinary commodities here in North Carolina. However, oysters can harbor naturally occurring bacteria that can cause illness in humans.
But simple handling practices can help reduce the risk of these dangerous bacteria in harvested oysters. North Carolina Sea Grant will co-host a workshop in Morehead City on June 9, 2010, to educate shellfish harvesters, dealers, and retailers on these processing and storage techniques.
“Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus are the bacteria in question,” says Marc Turano, mariculture specialist with North Carolina Sea Grant and the workshop organizer.
“This session will discuss what steps the stakeholders in the supply chain can take to control Vibrio growth in their inventory.”
Bob Rheault, executive director of the industry group East Coast Shellfish Growers Association, will lead the workshop.
The Vibrio workshop will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in Room 205 at North Carolina State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology (CMAST) in Morehead City. It is free of charge and open to the public.
To register for the workshop, contact Marc Turano at (919) 513-0122 or marc_turano@ncsu.edu.
The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources will be holding a series of meetings to receive public comment on draft revisions to North Carolina’s 2010 Coastal Habitat Protection Plan (CHPP).
The CHPP is a long-term strategy to protect and enhance habitats supporting coastal fisheries, which was mandated by the 1997 Fisheries Reform Act. The four commissions—Environmental Management, Coastal Resources, Marine Fisheries, and Wildlife Resources—are required to cooperate in developing and implementing rules and regulations impacting coastal habitats. Every five years the CHPP must be reviewed and updated to accommodate new issues and needs.
The draft plan can be found at www.onencnaturally.org/pages/CHPP_2010_Revision.html. Proposed updates to the plan include information on sea level rise/climate change, invasive species, point sources, endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), mapping, threats, and management needs.
All meetings will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the following locations: June 8 at N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries Central District Office, 5285 Highway 70 West, Morehead City; June 14 at NCDENR Regional Field Office, 127 Cardinal Drive Extension, Wilmington; and June 17 at Manteo Library, 700 N. Highway 64/264, Manteo.
For more information, contact Plan Coordinator Jimmy Johnson at (252) 948-3952 or Jimmy.Johnson@ncdenr.gov or Anne Deaton, with the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, at (910) 796-7215 or Anne.Deaton@ncdenr.gov.
The state of North Carolina is closely monitoring BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. State and federal agencies are coordinating plans to be fully prepared to respond in case the oil reaches our state. The U.S. Coast Guard is currently projecting that there is less than a 1 percent chance that any of the residual oil would reach this far north and threaten North Carolina’s coast.
BP is the responsible party for the oil spill and is leading the response. The Coast Guard and U.S. Department of Interior, along with other federal agencies, have joined with BP as part of the Unified Command.
North Carolina has an oil spill response plan that defines roles and responsibilities for responding agencies. The plan is available on the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety’s website under the Division of Emergency Management. It can be viewed on the web at www.nccrimecontrol.org/div/EM/documents/NCEOP-2009-PublicVersion.pdf. The oil response plan is on pages 433-480.
The Coast Guard is the lead agency in charge if oil threatens coastal waters, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the lead for inland waters. The N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety and its Division of Emergency Management is the lead state response agency. The N.C. State Emergency Response Team, headed by the state emergency management director, assists federal agencies, coordinates state preparations and response activities, and works with local communities and responders.
State response agencies include the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Health and Human Services, and more.
Occasional tarballs on beaches in North Carolina are not a new phenomenon and are common from activities un-related to this oil spill.
North Carolina beaches are open and no closures are anticipated at this time due to this situation. However, there are swimming advisories as issued by the Division of Environmental Health’s Recreational Water Quality Program staff, based on bacteriological results.
