MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. — May 5, 2014 — North Carolina internal coastal waters will close Monday to large-mesh gill net fishing to avoid discards of red drum.
The closure will continue until at least June 1, after the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission discusses several issues related to this year's overages in the commercial red drum fishery.
The division announced in April that the spring/summer commercial fishing season for red drum will not open this year because the annual harvest limit was exceeded in the fall/winter season. Final calculations from 2013 show that commercial fishermen landed 263,072 pounds of red drum between Sept. 1 and Nov. 23, exceeding the annual harvest limit by 13,072 pounds.
In North Carolina, commercial fishermen are not allowed to target red drum, but when the season is open, they are allowed to retain a certain number of red drum caught incidentally when targeting flounder or other species. Fishery management plans adopted by both the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission set an annual cap on this harvest at 250,000 pounds for a Sept. 1 to Aug. 31 season.