Saving Seafood

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

NORTH CAROLINA: Committee to select candidates for Mid-Atlantic council

October 13, 2025 — North Carolina candidates for the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council will be selected next week during a meeting of the state Marine Fisheries Commission Nominating Committee.

The committee is scheduled to meet by webinar at 5 p.m. Oct. 20.

The Mid-Atlantic Council consists of 21 voting members, including a federal representative, constituent states’ fish and wildlife agencies, and 13 private citizens with knowledge about recreational or commercial fishing, or marine conservation. The council also includes four nonvoting members who represent the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of State, and Coast Guard.

Read the full article at CoastalReview.org

NORTH CAROLINA: Fishermen rally at Blessing of the Fleet

October 8, 2025 — As commercial fishing boats processed past crowds gathered for the annual Blessing of the Fleet at Radio Island, North Carolina, on Sunday, fishermen made their feelings clear about recent state legislation efforts to ban shrimp trawling. Nearly 30 vessels hoisted signs reading: “NC SEAFOOD FOR ALL. NO TRAWL BAN.”

The push to ban shrimp trawling came unexpectedly earlier this year. In June, the proposed legislation ultimately failed, thanks to what Carolina Coast Online describes as “massive protests by area commercial fishermen, their families and other supporters.” The protest reflects a united front from the state’s fishing families following the failed legislation.

According to an article from National Fisherman from June 25, House Bill 442, originally drafted in the lower House of the legislature to set fishing seasons for southern flounder and red snapper, was amended June 18 and passed by the state Senate to include the trawl prohibition. That ignited intense protests from shrimp fishermen and supporters, who suspected the Coastal Conservation Association of using the amendment as a vehicle.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Storm warnings for Carolina shrimpers

September 30, 2025 — On the Outer Banks, everybody’s cell phones are buzzing with mandatory evacuation orders, but Hurricane Erin has turned northeast, and not a lot of people are on the move. In Pamlico Sound, it’s business as usual as Gregory Brooks steers his 40-foot shrimp boat, the Rebait, alongside the dock at Newman’s Seafood in Swan Quarter, North Carolina.

He’s got a nice load of mixed shrimp aboard, brown and white, or green tail as they’re called. “Right now, the season’s changing,” Brooks says. “From the brown to the white.” He and his uncle, Tommy Brooks, have been out for less than 24 hours and they’ve landed more than 30 baskets.

“They had 2,200 pounds,” says Michelle Newman, manager of Newman’s Seafood. “That’s not bad for the time they were out.” According to Newman, her family’s packing house has about five or six boats that come in every week. There are about 15 packing houses here in Hyde County,” she says. “Others have more boats. Only the smaller ones can get up in here.”

When a boat comes into Newmans, the crew comes down from the village of Swan Quarter to snap the heads off the shrimp. “It’s money for them to buy school clothes for their kids and things,” says Newman.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman