Saving Seafood

NORTH CAROLINA: Claws are out over proposed changes to NC blue crab fishery

December 1, 2025 — North Carolina’s blue crabs could soon be the latest species in the state to face harvest cutbacks and other limiting restrictions over concerns about the declining health of the state’s most valuable commercial fishery.

But crabbers are going to make sure the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission noisily hears their concerns before any additional steps to limit seasons and daily catch hauls are implemented.

Still, officials with the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries have said sampling programs and landing data continue to show worrisome declining trends. Agency biologist Robert Corbett Jr., who also is the department’s co-lead on blue crabs, told the commission at its Aug. 20 meeting that neighboring states are showing similar negative long-term directions with their blue crab fisheries.

Read the full article at Star News Online

NORTH CAROLINA: NC fishermen challenge proposed blue crab cuts

November 19, 2025 — North Carolina’s commercial fishing advocates are raising alarms over proposed blue crab harvest restriction, just as the Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) removed the expected vote from this week’s meeting agenda.

According to an updated agenda posted on Nov. 19, the action item to consider new management strategies under the Blue Crab Fishery Management Plan Amendment 3 has been taken off the table. The shift comes days after the North Carolina Coastal Counties Fisheries Coalition submitted a resolution opposing additional restrictions on the state’s most valuable commercial fishery.

During its Nov. 5 meeting in Morehead City, the coalition- which was formed earlier this year by coastal county lawmakers- voted to oppose any new harvest measures until the next blue crab stock assessment is completed in 2026. Members argued that without a reliable assessment, major changes would be premature.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

NORTH CAROLINA: North Carolina begins recruiting fishers for 2026 edition of crab gear recovery project

November 14, 2025 — Each winter, the blue crab fishery in the U.S. state of North Carolina closes for the season, but rather than simply heading home to wait until the next season opens, local fishermen turn their attention to what has been left behind.

Since 2014, the state’s Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project, led by the North Carolina Coastal Federation in partnership with the North Carolina Marine Patrol and the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries, has hired commercial fishermen to remove derelict gear from the state’s waters.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NORTH CAROLINA: Fisheries to vote on proposed blue crab harvest rules

November 14, 2025 —  The coastal county lawmakers that formed a new group to support commercial fishing have submitted a resolution opposing more restrictions on the commercial harvest of blue crabs ahead of the Marine Fisheries Commission Nov. 19-20 meeting in Wrightsville Beach.

The Marine Fisheries Commission is expected to consider adopting management strategies developed as part of the adaptative management framework for the Blue Crab Fishery Management Plan Amendment 3.

Those proposed strategies were discussed extensively during the third meeting of the North Carolina Coastal Counties Fisheries Coalition held Nov. 5 in Morehead City, when the members approved the resolution opposing any further restrictions until the 2026 blue crab stock assessment is completed.

Amendment 3 was adopted in 2020 “to end overfishing and achieve sustainable harvest in the blue crab fishery,” Division of Marine Fisheries documents state. The original plan was adopted in December 1998 with the intention to manage the species, and amended in 2004 and again in 2013. The division acts as staff to the commission.

Amendment 3 is nearly halfway through the legislatively mandated 10-year stock rebuilding period “with little evidence suggesting management measures have been successful in ending overfishing or achieving sustainable harvest,” documents continue. The adaptive management framework in the amendment 3 is being “used to implement management measures projected to reduce fishing mortality (F) closer to the F target and rebuild the spawning stock closer to the spawner abundance target with greater than 50% probability of success.”

Current rules include closures Jan. 1-31 north of the Highway 58 bridge in Carteret County and March 1-15 in waters south of the bridge, and a 5-inch minimum size for mature females.

Staff propose starting Jan. 1, in addition to existing closures, prohibiting crab trawling statewide year-round. For waters north of the Emerald Isle bridge, a 30-bushel trip limit would be put in place from September to December, and for south of the bridge, a 15-bushel hard crab trip limit from September to December.

Read the full article at CostalReview.org

New red drum satellite tracking platform officially launches

November 13, 2025 — A new satellite tracking program is giving the public an unprecedented look into the lives of North Carolina’s state saltwater fish — the red drum.

The North Carolina Marine & Estuary Foundation has officially launched an interactive online platform that allows users to follow the migration routes of tagged red drum along the state’s coast in near real time. The initiative combines science and technology to better understand the species’ movement patterns and habitat use, while encouraging public engagement in marine conservation.

“Red drum are an iconic symbol of North Carolina’s coastal communities and a key driver of our state’s $4 billion saltwater fishing economy,” said Foundation Executive Director Chad Thomas. “This exciting new tool invites the public to engage directly with real-time science from the field—to see where these fish travel and to understand why protecting their habitat matters.”

Read the full article at the Island Free Press

NORTH CAROLINA: Commercial fishers invited to join annual lost gear recovery effort along N.C. coast

November 12, 2025 — The North Carolina Coastal Federation is seeking commercial fishers to take part in its annual Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project, a large-scale effort that removes derelict crab pots and other debris from coastal waters each winter.

The project, which began in 2014, employs local commercial captains and their crews to help clear lost crab pots and abandoned gear from North Carolina’s sounds. The 2026 cleanup is scheduled for January 1–31, and applications are open through December 12 on the federation’s website.

Participating captains must hold a valid North Carolina standard commercial fishing license. Those working in the state’s southeast region will have a later window — March 1–15 — with a separate call for applicants expected early next year.

“Every year, crab pots and other fishing gear are lost in our sounds in a variety of ways,” the Coastal Federation stated. “Lost gear can get hung up or drift into channels, creating serious hazards for boaters, wildlife, and fishermen.”

The initiative is conducted in partnership with the North Carolina Marine Patrol, and in 2025, participating crews retrieved 2,136 crab pots from select coastal areas.

Read the full article at Island Free Press

NORTH CAROLINA: NC lost gear recovery effort pulls more than 2000 pots

November 12, 2025 — Each winter, when the North Carolina blue crab fishery closes for the season, a kind of clean-up effort happens. Rather than hauling in traps full of crab, local fishermen turn their efforts into what has been left behind.

Now in its 11th year, the Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project, led by the North Carolina Coastal Federation in partnership with the N.C. Marine Patrol and the Division of Marine Fisheries mobilize commercial fishermen to remove derelict gear from state waters. The 2025 cleanup drew 50 participants who collected 2136 lost crab pots from sounds and estuaries stretching from the Virginia line to the South Carolina border.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NORTH CAROLINA: N.C. Coastal Fisheries Coalition expands advisory team, adopts resolutions on blue crab and sheepshead regulations

November 10, 2025 — The North Carolina Coastal Counties Fisheries Coalition met on Wednesday, November 5, in Morehead City, where members advanced several new initiatives and voiced unified opposition to recent regulatory proposals from the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF).

During the meeting, chairs of the coalition’s four standing committees—Education, Fishing Limits and Water Quality, Legislative, and Predation Management—shared updates on their initial work and priorities. The committees were formed in October to address key issues affecting the state’s commercial fishing industry.

Read the full article at Island Free Press

NORTH CAROLINA: Pamlico Sound survey continues without longtime research boat

November 7, 2025 — A state agency has been conducting research on aquatic life in an important North Carolina body of water since the late 1980s.

It’s collected valuable information that’s helped the state keep adequate fish stocks while protecting wild species.

Now, the boat that’s been used in this research for decades has been pulled out of the water.

Researchers have a plan to keep a valuable study afloat without their prized vessel, continuing a data set they’ve been building for decades.

“Our data is collected in the Pamlico Sound, it’s a very important region.” said Holly White, north district manager for the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.

White said the Pamlico Sound survey began in 1987.

Read th full article at Spectrum 1

NORTH CAROLINA: Pound for pound, North Carolina’s pound net fishery delivers

October 31, 2025 — For more than 150 years, North Carolina fishermen have been using pound nets. Gaither Midgette is among those keeping the fishery going.

Before the Civil War, the American shad fishery in the South was dominated by aristocrats, including George Washington. Plantation owners with deep pockets invested what would be millions of dollars today into the gear and infrastructure needed to harvest shad with haul seines of 2,000 yards or more. They depleted the resource, and during the Civil War in North Carolina, the Union Army destroyed most of the boats, nets, and buildings needed for the haul seine fishery. In 1863, North Carolina outlawed the fishery for the duration of the war in order to keep shad from being commandeered by, or sold to, Union Army commissaries.

The pause in the harvest during the war led to rebounding stocks, and in 1869, the Hattrick brothers brought the pound net to North Carolina. Pound nets required a much smaller investment and provided a higher return than haul seines. A few haul seine operations remained, but increasingly, the shad fishery belonged to the common people. In addition, the pound nets often caught higher-value species at a time when ice was introduced to preserve the catch, and those fish could be shipped to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York.

Over a hundred years later, the shad fishery has shrunk to almost nothing, but small-scale fishermen are still working the pound nets in Pamlico, Albemarle, and Croatan Sounds, and Gaither Midgette of Wanchese is among them. At 5:30 on a warm August morning, he fires up the 30-HP Honda 4-stroke on his pound skiff, a 20-foot by 6-foot wooden boat planked crossways on its flat bottom. “It’s all juniper-planked,” says Midgette. “The sides are all juniper, too. Glen Bradley built it about 20 years ago.” He steers down the canal from Spencer Yachts to the open water of Croatan Sound, between Roanoke Island and the mainland. “It won’t take too long. We’ll be finished by 7:30,” he says.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman