May 19, 2016 — Yes, it is starting to sound like a broken record. But the stakes are too high to not talk about cobia before an incredibly important meeting Tuesday at the Virginia Marine Resources Commission in Newport News.
The commission that afternoon will decide whether or not it will comply with federally ordered rules that will shut down cobia fishing along the East Coast on June 20.
North Carolina’s fisheries managers meet today and Friday to decide whether that state will go non-compliant. Should Carolina do so, the feds most likely would make the coastal closing date earlier.
The thing is, cobia in the two states are almost exclusively caught in state waters inside three miles. In the past, state agencies usually have adopted federal water rules in fear of suffering paybacks from the feds. But not always.