May 23, 2014 — The following was released by the North Carolina Fisheries Association:
LARGE MESH GILLNET ISSUE: The Marine Fisheries Commission voted yesterday to allow large mesh anchored gillnets to be used west of the so-called shrimp line. The actual motion that passed is as follows:
TO ALLOW ANCHORED LARGE MESH GILL FISHERY TO OPERATE IN EXEMPTED AREAS – WESTERN ALBEMARLE SOUND, CURRITUCK SOUND, PAMLICO RIVER, PUNGO RIVER, NEUSE RIVER, NEW RIVER ABOVE THE SHRIMP LINE – WITH NO POSSESSION OF RED DRUM BYCATCH BEGINNING JUNE 1.
Also: TO ALLOW LARGE MESH RUNAROUND GILL NET FISHERY STATEWIDE WITH NO POSSESSION OF RED DRUM EFFECTIVE JUNE 1 UNTIL SEPT 1.
CARTERET COUNTY FISHERMEN'S ASSOCIATION will meet on Saturday, May 31st, at the Marshallberg Community Club, 6:00pm.
Jerry's comments:
I was in Raleigh on Tuesday & Wednesday attending Senate and House committee meetings. I was a bit surprised to hear of a proposal for a study bill that would establish a 10,000 acre shellfish sanctuary in the Pamlico Sound. That provision is one page of a 62 page bill that cleared two Senate committees and will probably pass the full Senate next week. Since it is a study bill it lacks detail but deserves close scrutiny.
Nothing else to report from Raleigh. Just keeping an eye on things and making contacts.
Yesterday I attended the Marine Fisheries Commission meeting in Pine Knoll Shores. There was quite a bit of comment made by commercial and recreational fishermen at the beginning of the meeting on a variety of subjects. Although I did not attend the public comment session on Wednesday evening, I heard that Steve Weeks gave an excellent overview of the economic importance of commercial fishing citing the recently released report by the feds. During the Thursday morning public comments the new Executive Director of the CCA disputed Steve's take on the report. Shocking, isn't it?
Louis Daniel reviewed the NCFA proposal about the large mesh gillnet proposal and he said that DMF can agree with the opening of the areas west of the so-called "shrimp line" and also added Currituck to our list because of a much smaller chance of red drum discards. DMF also agreed to allow ???? to be used. However, they did not agree with our request to allow a 4 fish allowance for red drum bycatch to be landed effective June 1st and 7 fish on August 1st, due to the existing cap already being exceeded. We proposed that the overage be deducted from next year's cap but the DMF and MFC said they could not allow it as that would be a compliance issue with the MFC and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's red drum plan. Our argument was that it may be a technical violation, but with the conservation equivalency of the fish saved by the recent closure, there is no way it was detrimental to the red drum stocks and the rebuilding process.
Bottom line is that large mesh gillnets will be open on June 1st west of the shrimp line but no red drum can be landed until September 1st.
We received some very sad news on Wednesday morning about the death of Pat Green, the wife and David Green. David has been a very good friend personally and to the seafood industry with all of his work with NC
State's Food Science Department and CMAST. You could count on David & Pat to attend the Fish Baron's Ball and other seafood events. Please keep David and his family in your thoughts and prayers.
God bless,
Jerry
MEETINGS:
NOTE: If you are aware of ANY meetings that should be of interest to commercial fishing that is not on this list, please contact us so we can include it here.
May 31 Carteret County Fishermen's Association; Marshallberg Community Club; 6:00pm
June 2 NCFA Board of Directors Mtg; Hampton Inn; Washington NC; 2:00pm
June 9 – 13 SAFMC Meeting; Pointe Vedra Beach, FL June 10 Finfish Advisory Committee; Ag extension office; New Bern; 6:00pm
June 10 – 12 MAFMC Meeting; Freehold, NJ
MFC/DMF Meeting Schedule
TEMPORARY SUSPENSION OF RULE – AMERICAN EEL
TEMPORARY SUSPENSION OF PARTIAL RULE – ATLANTIC OCEAN
STRIPED BASS COMMERCIAL GEAR PERMIT – DATE OF AQUISITION