October 1, 2026 — Jamie and Paul Lane had expected to spend their week before Christmas fishing for perch in the Albemarle Sound. Instead, restrictions on gillnet use led to them losing an important part of their season.
A Dec. 17, 2025, proclamation from the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries restricted gillnets across Management Unit A under the state’s federal permit for protecting endangered Atlantic sturgeon and sea turtles. Jamie Lane said four observed sturgeon interactions in a small-mesh fishery were extrapolated to nearly 85 estimated takes, threatening to shut the fishery down.
“Right there, a week before Christmas, there’s not a lot of other options at that time of year,” Jamie Lane said. “That’s very detrimental to your livelihood.”
This closure is part of a broader dispute over whether North Carolina’s Atlantic sturgeon population has recovered enough to call for less restrictive protections. The Lanes are part of a group of commercial fishermen asking the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to reclassify the Carolina population from endangered to threatened, arguing that sturgeon are more abundant, mortality is low and current regulations have reduced the risk from gillnets. Scientists and federal officials, however, say the population is depleted compared to historical levels, and that increases in juvenile fish or sightings by fishermen do not necessarily show that adult sturgeon have recovered.