Saving Seafood

Federal fishery managers to allow red snapper harvest

October 20, 2020 — Commercial and recreational fishermen will be able to harvest red snapper this season, even if the season lasts less than four days.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service announced Oct. 13 that Regulatory Amendment 33 for the South Atlantic Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan will go into effect Friday, Nov. 13. The final rule allows the red-snapper fishing season to be less than four days in the federal south Atlantic region, which includes the waters between 3-200 miles offshore of North Carolina.

It removes the minimum season length requirement. Red snapper harvest, recreational and commercial, could be open for either commercial or recreational harvest for three days or less. The intent of the final rule is to improve access to the red snapper resource.

Read the full story at the Carteret County News-Times

NORTH CAROLINA: Rebekah Williams is a pearl in the Carteret County oyster farming industry

October 19, 2020 — Rebekah Williams has vivid memories clamming and gathering oysters with her grandfather on his 10-acre oyster farm.

Her early childhood dream was to become an oyster farmer just like grandpa.

Williams has always loved being on the water, but children have a way of growing up and moving on to other things. After college, Williams came home for the summer and began working at Sammy’s, a local restaurant. Soon, Williams learned that Sammy Boyd had an oyster farm. He also grew up in the fishing industry.

When Williams shared her childhood dream with Boyd of starting a business of farming oysters, Boyd highly encouraged her.

In 2016, she officially obtained a lease from the State of North Carolina and in 2017 began buying “seed oysters.” Seed oysters are tiny oysters as small as 1 millimeter that are raised from larval oysters.

Read the full story at Carolina Coast Online

NORTH CAROLINA: Fisheries Nominating Committee to Meet

October 8, 2020 — The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission Nominating Committee will meet next week by webinar to recommend candidates for at-large seats on two fishery management councils.

The committee’s recommendations for the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council will be forwarded to the Marine Fisheries Commission, a nine-member board appointed by the governor to manage, restore, develop, cultivate, protect and regulate the state’s marine and estuary resources.

Read the full story at Coastal Review Online

CARES Act spend approvals clears USD 13.2 million for fishery aid in four states

October 1, 2020 — Four states that recently gained CARES Act spend plan approvals are now in the process of distributing aid, which all together totals just over USD 13.2 million (EUR 11.2 million) in funds.

The four states – North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, and Rhode Island – represent collectively less funding than many individual states. Currently just over USD 114.1 million (EUR 97.1 million) in funds have been cleared for release through spend plans, with the largest recipient so far – Massachusetts – receiving just over USD 28 million (EUR 23.8 million).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Maine’s CARES Act spend plan acknowledges now-approved aid isn’t enough

September 29, 2020 — Maine is among the latest states have had CARES Act spend-plans approved by NOAA, bringing the current total of states with approved plans to 12 as of 29 September.

Maine – along with Alabama, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Virginia – have all had spend plans approved and can now begin the application process for fishery participants. The states join California, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Oregon, and South Carolina.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NORTH CAROLINA: Questions Linger on Offshore Drilling, Seismic

September 25, 2020 — Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., announced this week that President Trump had agreed to prevent drilling for oil and natural gas off the North Carolina coast, but the president has yet to speak publicly on the matter, and his administration says it is still moving forward with permitting for seismic exploration in the Atlantic.

Tillis, whom polls show trailing his Democratic Party challenger Cal Cunningham, announced Monday that Trump had agreed to add North Carolina to a multistate moratorium on Atlantic offshore drilling announced earlier this month.

The president announced Sept. 8 during an event in Jupiter, Florida, an order to extend the moratorium on offshore drilling on Florida’s Gulf Coast and expand it to Florida’s Atlantic Coast, as well as the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina. North Carolina was not included at the time.

Tillis said Monday that he had spoken with Trump who agreed North Carolina would be included in the presidential memorandum withdrawing new leasing for offshore oil and gas developments for the next 12 years.

Also on Monday, the Department of Justice filed a document with the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, Charleston Division, stating that Trump’s memorandum “has no legal effect” on the status of the applications to conduct seismic surveys in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf that are pending before the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Read the full story at Coastal Review Online

NORTH CAROLINA: That Seafood May Not Be What You Think

September 21, 2020 — Jeffrey Styron sold a lie.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of lies neatly packaged for buyers — primarily small seafood retailers and restaurants — who trusted they were buying crabmeat harvested in the United States.

After all, that’s what the labels on crabmeat from Garland Fulcher Seafood Co. Inc. said.

Earlier this month, Styron, treasurer of the corporate board of officers for Garland Fulcher in Oriental, pleaded guilty to falsely labeling crabmeat as “Product of USA.”

Glenn Skinner, executive director of the North Carolina Fisheries Association, warns consumers to stay away from imported seafood “since you don’t know what you’re getting.”

“To me whether it’s local or not shouldn’t determine whether they should buy seafood,” he said. “I would try to get domestic, whether caught or farm raised, either way.”

Read the full story at Coastal Review Online

Outer Banks seafood sent to Louisiana as part of Hurricane Laura relief

September 16, 2020 — More than 11,000 pounds of Outer Banks shrimp and fish is going to help with storm relief in Louisiana, another area known for seafood and devastating hurricanes.

The North Carolina Fisheries Association coordinated the effort with companies in Wanchese, Grantsboro, Washington, N.C., and Hampton, Va., to gather and ship 11,225 pounds of seafood, including more than 2,000 pounds of shrimp and nearly 9,000 pounds of filleted flounder and other fish, said Jerry Schill, government affairs director for the fisheries organization, in an email.

The seafood shipment was part of a relief effort to help those affected by Hurricane Laura.

“Hurricanes hit the Atlantic and Gulf coasts on a regular basis so we need to have the infrastructure in place and do what we can, just as they would do the same for us,” Schill said.

Read the full story at  The Virginian-Pilot

Cooper urges Trump administration to include North Carolina in offshore oil drilling moratorium

September 16, 2020 — Governor Roy Cooper said he’s reached out to President Donald Trump and his administration to include North Carolina in the recently announced moratorium on offshore oil drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.

Last week, Trump extended a ten-year moratorium on offshore oil drilling for South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, but did not include North Carolina in the executive order.

“I am deeply concerned and disappointed that you did not include North Carolina in the moratorium,” Cooper wrote in a letter to President Trump on Tuesday. “Offshore drilling threatens North Carolina’s coastal economy and environment and offers our state minimal economic benefit. Accepted science tells us that there is little, if any, oil worth drilling for off North Carolina’s coast, and the risks of offshore drilling far outweigh the benefits.”

Read the full story at WECT

NORTH CAROLINA: DMF’s CARES Act Spending Plan Approved

September 15, 2020 — National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries has approved the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries’ spending plan for federal coronavirus fisheries assistance.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES, Act is a more than $2 trillion economic relief package. The  next step is for the state to be notified by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission that the $5.4 million has been awarded.

The Marine Fisheries spending plan details how the funding will be disbursed through direct payments to eligible commercial fishermen, charter businesses, seafood dealers and processors and qualified marine aquaculture operations.

The division was notified May 7 that NOAA Fisheries had allocated $5.4 million in CARES Act fisheries assistance to North Carolina. Receipt of the funding, which passes through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, was contingent on federal approval of the spending plan, which was received Sept. 9.

Read the full story at Coastal Review Online