Releases – March 26, 2015
The Onslow Bay is a large body of water stretching between Frying Pan Shoals and Cape Lookout Shoals.
In February 2015, AR-372 (The Liberty Ship) off Wrightsville Beach was the recipient of the first load of (scrap/donated) reinforced concrete pipe (RCP) and the new, locally manufactured “Atlantic Pods.” The Coastal Recreational Fishing License (CRFL) funds were used to transport, unload, stage/store, reload onto the barges and then this material was deployed onto the ocean floor. “This is a win-win situation for recreational fishermen. This will have a positive impact on several species of fish that live and spawn on this structure near the inlets and beaches, and on our local economy as a result of recreational fishermen traveling to our coast from outside our area. This is one of the most efficient uses of CRFL funding possible,” said Capt. Dennis Barbour, OBARA Board of Director.
This (scrap) RCP, that encourages life in many forms including multiple species of spawning adult, fry and juvenile fish, crustaceans, bi-valves, invertebrates, plant life and more on an otherwise sandy bottom without much definition, is the perfect disposal procedure for everyone involved—the manufacturer, truckers, fishermen etc. Instead of the expensive reclamation/recycling process needed for RCP, laying it on the seafloor is, by far, the best use of this material.
OBARA Director Rita Merritt says, “This is the best of both worlds. This type project takes a scrap material like RCP, which is a liability to the manufacturer, and turns it into an asset. We have the ability to create a living, breathing reef area that was an area of very little life on sand bottom, previously, with this concrete material.”
One interesting aspect of OBARA is the last letter: “A”. This letter stands for Association, meaning OBARA is openly recruiting association members. Please feel free to join and/or donate to OBARA to ensure that we can have artificial reefs being deployed for many years to come, throughout the entire Onslow Bay. We are looking for private and corporate members with different skills and/or resources to donate. Be part of our team to keep this momentum going. Visit www.obara-ncreefs.org. We are a 501c3 organization with all donations being tax deductible.
State and local officials gathered at the foot of the William B. Umstead Memorial Bridge in Dare County earlier this year to celebrate the completion of the final phase of the Manns Harbor Boating Access Area project.
This multi-use facility provides both commercial and recreational access to Croatan Sound, as well as green space suitable for picnicking, wildlife viewing, and launching canoes and kayaks. The final phase of the project, construction of commercial storage and docking facilities, was completed in September, and reflects many layers of collaboration between state and local agencies
“The resounding and unique success of this project is a tribute to the dedication of private citizens, small businesses, non-governmental organizations, and local and state governments working together with common purpose to ensure that all North Carolinians can access and enjoy our public trust waters,” said Gordon Myers, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s executive director.
The commercial portion of the boating access area consists of 300 feet of renovated bulkhead and shoreline docks, a new loading platform dock, and a large gravel parking and storage area.
The first phase of the project, construction of recreational boating access, was completed in December 2012. It included three new boat ramps, two new floating docks, 300 feet of renovated bulkhead and shoreline docks, and a gravel parking lot with 49 vehicle/trailer spaces and seven single car spaces.
“The Manns Harbor project was a great opportunity to marry the needs of both the recreational and commercial communities, and I am proud to see it completed,” said Louis Daniel, director of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries. “The improved access for recreational fishermen and the critical access supplied for the commercial industry will, hopefully, return Manns Harbor to its historical place as a vibrant, fishing community.”
The entire project resulted from a grass-roots effort by Dare County residents to purchase and restore an old marina that was once highly-used as a working waterfront.
“Dare County is thrilled with the transformation of the Manns Harbor Marina into a first class facility that will provide much needed access and serve the needs of our commercial and recreational fishermen,” said Robert L. “Bob” Woodard, senior chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners.
The state purchased the 13.45-acre tract, off U.S. 64, in April 2009 with a $4 million grant from the Waterfront Access and Marine Industry Fund, administered by the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, and $335,000 from a Public Access Grant, administered by the Division of Coastal Management. The Division of Marine Fisheries provided another $40,000 from the Waterfront Access and Marine Industry Fund and a $20,000 Coastal Recreational Fishing License Grant for improvements on the site.
The Wildlife Commission contributed $1.3 million, with $360,000 coming from the Sport Fish Restoration Program and the remaining balance from wildlife receipts.
The entire facility complies with Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines.
The 2015 Atlantic menhaden benchmark assessment indicates the resource is not overfished nor experiencing overfishing relative to the current maximum spawning potential (MSP) based biological reference points. Population fecundity, a measure of reproductive capacity, is estimated to be 71% higher than the target value (100 trillion eggs). Additionally, total fishing mortality is estimated to be 0.27, below both the fishing mortality threshold (2.98) and target (1.03). The Atlantic Menhaden Management Board approved the benchmark stock assessment for management use.
“The assessment findings bring good news regarding the status of the Atlantic menhaden resource and sets the stage for the Board to begin to discuss how it wants to move forward in sustainably managing Atlantic menhaden. This discussion will include Board management objectives that address the needs of the reduction and bait fisheries as well as the ecological services menhaden provides as an important prey species,” stated Board Chair Robert Boyles from South Carolina. “The assessment results are different from prior assessments and this is in large part due to the tremendous efforts of stakeholders, and state and federal scientists to improve upon both the data and modeling approaches used in the assessment. We are grateful for their hard work and dedication in advancing our understanding of the Atlantic menhaden stock status.”
Atlantic menhaden is harvested by both commercial reduction and bait fisheries. From 2010 to 2012, reduction fishery landings averaged 172,600 metric tons and are substantially lower than historical levels. Conversely, total bait landings have been increasing in recent years, averaging about 52,900 metric tons during 2010-2012, with peak landings of about 63,540 metric tons in 2012. In 2013, landings for both fisheries were reduced by 20%, consistent with the requirements of Amendment 2.
Through the consideration of new and existing datasets and the exploration of alternative model configurations, significant changes were made during the 2015 assessment to address the issues identified with the 2010 assessment. Below are a few of the major changes that led to significantly different assessment results.
1. Using new datasets, maturity at age was corrected, resulting in a higher estimated proportion of mature fish at ages 1, 2, and 3. This higher proportion of mature fish at the earlier ages resulted in a stock that had higher reproductive potential (i.e., increased fecundity) than previously estimated.
2. Two composite adult indices of relative abundance were created using nine new standardized fishery-independent indices that spanned a much broader spatial scale. This was a significant improvement from the 2010 benchmark assessment that used one Chesapeake Bay fishery-dependent pound net index to characterize adult abundance for the entire stock.
3. Dome-shaped selectivity for all fishery fleets was used to account for the fact that larger sized individuals were observed in multiple fishery-independent surveys than captured by the bait and reduction fisheries during the entire history of sampling. This ultimately results in more fish at older ages because the larger fish are not being captured by the fisheries.
All these improvements combined led to significantly different assessment results. A more detailed description of the stock assessment results is available on the Commission’s website at http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/d26f852015MenhadenStockAssessmentOverview_Feb2015.pdf.
Following the acceptance of the assessment, the Board tasked the Technical Committee with conducting a thorough review of the peer review findings and performing projections that explore different constant harvest scenarios based on the results of the assessment and the current stock status. The Board will review the projection analyses at the Commission’s Spring Meeting and further deliberate on management objectives that address the needs of the reduction and bait fisheries as well as the ecological services menhaden provides. The final assessment and peer review will be posted to the Commission website the week of February 9th, www.asmfc.org, on the Atlantic Menhaden webpage.
For more information, please contact Mike Waine, Senior Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at (703) 842.0740 or mwaine@asmfc.org.
The state closed more than 300,000 acres of water bottom to shellfish harvests on February 4 as a way to save tax dollars with little impact to fishermen.
The closures – the result of funding cuts approved in last year’s state budget –impact areas of the Albemarle Sound, Currituck Sound, the upper Pungo River, and the upper Neuse River. These waters have long been considered non-productive shellfish waters. Environmental conditions, such as salinity levels, are not conducive to growing oysters and clams, and little or no shellfish harvest occurs in these waters.
The closures eliminate 80 sampling sites, resulting in about 480 fewer water quality samples taken per year.
The associated reduction in staff, office, and operation expense will save the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries about $148,239 per year. The division closed its Nags Head Shellfish Sanitation office in September and eliminated two technician positions that were based there. A third position was shifted to federal funding.
Division staff will continue to inspect processing plants in northeastern North Carolina. Staff will also continue collecting samples and conducting shoreline surveys in areas that are not closed to shellfishing.
In addition, staff will continue monitoring high-usage recreational water quality sites April through October. The sites that will be monitored include all ocean beaches from Corolla through Ocracoke, as well as Jockey’s Ridge and Colington Harbor sound-side sites. However, due to cuts in funding, the division will no longer sample 36 other, low-usage sound-side sites in Currituck, Albemarle, Croatan and Roanoke sounds.
A map of recreational water quality sampling sites that will still be tested can be found at http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf/testing-sites.
Regional maps delineating waters that are newly closed to shellfish harvest can be found at http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf/01-2015-pa-map-examples.
More detailed maps of open and closed shellfish harvesting areas can be found at http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf/shellfish-closure-maps.
For a list of the waters that are closing the shellfish harvest and their coordinates, see proclamation PA-PC-2015 at http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf/proclamations-polluted-areas.
