June 21, 2021 — Shellfish growers may be able to use floating structures at their lease sites in the near future, once state officials create regulations for it.
The N.C. Coastal Resources Commission held its regular meeting Wednesday at the Beaufort Hotel on Lennoxville Road. This was the first in-person meeting the commission has had since February 2020 due the coronavirus pandemic.
During the meeting, the commission directed the N.C. Division of Coastal Management to look into drafting regulations for permitting floating structures for shellfish aquaculture leases. DCM Director Braxton Davis said he wants to come back to the CRC with drafted permitting rules at the commission’s September meeting.
Existing CRC regulations don’t allow floating structures on shellfish aquaculture leases, and any such structures found have to be removed.
N.C. Coastal Federation assistant director of policy Ana Zivanovic-Nenadovic gave a presentation to the commission on the importance of floating structures to shellfish aquaculture Wednesday.
“The current need for the industry is to have some kind of floating structure on the lease,” she said. “Most of the states that have large (aquaculture) industries allow these structures.”