August 17, 2013 — MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. — As the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission prepares to review a petition for rulemaking that could ban shrimp trawling from the state’s coastal waters, it’s shrimp advisors are also looking at management options to reduce bycatch that could put more restrictions on where shrimpers can fish in coastal waters or on the gear they can use.
The MFC’s Shrimp Fishery Management Plan Advisory Committee received these management options from the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, the division of the state that enforces fisheries regulations and conducts fisheries-related research, at the regular committee meeting Thursday. No action was taken at the meeting, however; the committee will come up with its list of recommended options for the MFC at the Sept. 11 committee meeting.
A number of people who came to the meeting Thursday, including commercial and recreational fishermen, were opposed to additional restrictions on shrimp trawling. Fifteen people spoke during public comments, all of them opposed to one or more of the proposed management measures.
The committee is looking at these measures to try and reduce bycatch in the shrimp trawl fishery. According to data from the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, the state division that implements fisheries regulations and conducts fisheries-related studies, finfish are often caught in shrimp trawls, particularly spot, croaker and weakfish.
The committee is looking at a suite of options that include gear restrictions on trawl headropes – the line on a trawl that supports the mesh or webbing nearest the water surface that determines the net’s size, area restrictions and removal of certain trawls from the Recreational Commercial Gear License (RCGL). Among the measures under consideration are:
– Reducing the maximum headrope length for all internal coastal waters.
– Implementing a maximum number of rigs (i.e. a maximum number of trawl nets) in internal coastal waters.
– Implementing a maximum vessel size in internal coastal waters.
– Prohibiting all shrimp trawling in all internal coastal waters.
– Prohibiting all shrimp trawling in Pamlico Sound and its tributaries.
– Prohibiting all shrimp trawling in portions of Pamlico Sound to allow a buffer to sensitive habitats.
– Prohibiting all shrimp trawling in Special Secondary Nursery Areas.
– Prohibiting shrimp trawling in the Intracoastal waterway canal from Sunset Beach Beach Bridge to the S.C. state line, including Eastern Channel, lower Calabash River and Shallotte River.
– Eliminating otter trawls as an authorized gear of the RCGL.
Read the full story at the Carteret County News-Times