Saving Seafood

North Carolina shrimp was a really big deal

June 19, 2016 — Rested, ready and eager to get going after what some people down this way refer to as “white gold,” owners and operators of a large fleet of boats will be shoving off from various coastal points … in search of the wily shrimp that are now beginning to move in commercial quantities in State-controlled waters.

The shrimpers, who run into the hundreds, are quite naturally hopeful as they prepare to sally forth into the sounds and coves after the shrimp that usually find ready markets to the north as well as in the Tar Heel State. …

Numerous buyers, especially from the New York area, are always on hand to buy the bulk of the the shrimp catch. The shrimp that go to northern markets are iced and rushed northward on trucks.

Read the full story at The Post and Courier 

NOAA Fishery Bulletin: NOAA Fisheries Seeks Public Comment on a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Hogfish in Federal Waters of the South Atlantic Region

June 20, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is seeking public comment on a draft environmental impact statement for Amendment 37 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region (Amendment 37).

NOAA Fisheries is proposing to manage hogfish in the South Atlantic as two populations: Georgia through North Carolina and Florida Keys/East Florida. A population assessment determined that the Florida Keys/East Florida population is undergoing overfishing and is overfished and, therefore, in need of a rebuilding plan. The overfishing and overfished status of the Georgia/North Carolina population is unknown.

The draft environmental impact statement for Amendment 37 analyzes a range of alternatives for actions, which include:

  • Modifying the management unit for hogfish.
  • Establishing a rebuilding plan for the Florida Keys/East Florida population to increase hogfish biomass to sustainable levels.
  • Specifying commercial and recreational annual catch limits and accountability measures for the Georgia/North Carolina and Florida Keys/East Florida populations of hogfish.
  • Modifying or establishing fishing regulations for both populations of hogfish, including minimum size limits, commercial trip limits, recreational bag limits, and a recreational fishing season.

For more information, please see the frequently asked questions section at:

http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/sustainable_fisheries/s_atl/sg/2015/am37/index.html

Request for Comments

The comment period on this draft environmental impact statement ends on August 1, 2016. You may obtain electronic copies of the draft amendment and environmental impact statement from the NOAA Fisheries Web site at http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/sustainable_fisheries/s_atl/sg/2015/am37/index.htmlor the e-Rulemaking Portal (see Addresses section).

Addresses

You may submit comments on this document, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2016-0068, by either of the following methods:

ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION: Submit all electronic public comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal.

  1. Go to www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2016-0068.
  2. Click the “Comment Now!” icon, complete the required fields.
  3. Enter or attach your comments.

MAIL: Submit written comments to Nikhil Mehta, Southeast Regional Office, NMFS, 263 13th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.

INSTRUCTIONS: Comments sent by any other method, to any other address or individual, or received after the end of the comment period, may not be considered by NOAA Fisheries.

All comments received are a part of the public record and will generally be posted for public viewing on http://www.regulations.gov without change. All personal identifying information (e.g., name, address, etc.), confidential business information, or otherwise sensitive information submitted voluntarily by the sender will be publicly accessible. NOAA Fisheries will accept anonymous comments (enter “N/A” in the required fields if you wish to remain anonymous).

Rep. Jones Asks for Red Snapper Opening Based on New Data

June 15, 2016 — The following was released by the office of Rep. Walter Jones (NC-3):

WASHINGTON — This week, Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC-3) and over a dozen of his House colleagues urged federal fisheries regulators to consider science from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute before following through on a 2016 commercial and recreational closure of the South Atlantic red snapper fishery. The Institute, which is a subsidiary of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, has data which shows a much healthier red snapper stock than the federal data used to justify the 2016 closure. Harvest of South Atlantic red snapper has been banned for the past six years.

“The population statistics from the Institute support allowing a commercial and recreational harvest of red snapper in the South Atlantic region,” said Jones and his colleagues in a letter to NOAA Administrator, Dr. Kathryn Sullivan. “Unfortunately, reports indicate these data are not being considered as ‘best available science’ and, therefore, are at risk of being excluded from the [South Atlantic Fishery Management] Council’s deliberations. Permitting a limited amount of red snapper harvest this year, to the extent it would not jeopardize the fishery’s overall sustainability, could serve to more accurately assess the size, sex, and relative abundance of the red snapper fishery and help resolve the discrepancies between the two data sets.”

Jones has been a critic of the science used by the federal government to manage South Atlantic red snapper. In November of 2015, he raised a number of questions about the credibility of the agency’s red snapper data.

Red snapper confusion has some seeing red

June 10, 2016 — Next week, expect to hear more talk about confounding math methods than the first time our schoolchildren introduced us adults to Common Core. Then expect to hear that many anglers turned as red in the face as the scales on the red snapper they will again be told they can’t keep when fishing in federal waters.

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council will meet in Cocoa Beach for week-long meetings to discuss management of some of the more than 100 species of important food fish and popular game fish it is responsible for handling.

The bulk of the focus during next week’s meetings will be on the red snapper, a fish that is very important to three sectors with very different goals. Red snapper grow large, fight hard, fetch a good price at the market, and have a critical role in the ecosystem of the coral reefs located on the sea floor from North Carolina to Florida’s Treasure Coast.

Commercial fishermen working out of ports from Sebastian and Port Canaveral to the Outer Banks would love to target red snapper year round. Charter boat operators in that same zone are stinging ever since the National Marine Fisheries Service put a halt to red snapper harvest in 2010. Recreational anglers who fish a day or two on the weekend aren’t allowed to take any home for dinner, either.

But next week, the entire world that revolves around the red snapper will have a chance to read and hear the latest data on this prized and valuable resource. The long-awaited red snapper stock assessment was completed in April and peer reviewed in May, so it will be debuted to the world Tuesday and Wednesday.

Read the full story at TC Palm

Small fishing boat plays big role in aviators’ rescue

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Three fisherman came to the rescue of Naval aviators off the coast of North Carolina Thursday morning. Something went wrong during a Navy training mission and two F/A-18F Super Hornets crashed into the water below. 

All four of the aviators on board survived, and a recreational boat made a big difference in the immediate moments after the crash.

10 On Your Side’s Liz Kilmer spoke exclusively to Rob Schutrumpf, one of the men on the “Pammy,” who came to the rescue.

“There was something that looked like a wing or a tail burning and that’s kind of what clued us in to where they were before the helicopter got here,” he said.

Read the full story at WAVY

NORTH CAROLINA: Herring on the comeback?

May 24, 2016 — For generations, local anglers visited places such as the legendary Vaughan’s Creek on the Hertford-Northampton County line in search of a historic staple of life- herring.

Those boney fish, which migrate annually in the late winter and early spring to spawn before returning to their traditional salty habitat, graced the tables of local residents, as well as around the world. They were often a major source of food – salted and preserved – over the harsh, cold winter months, long before there were such conveniences as supermarkets.

By the turn of the 21st century, the once plentiful herring were threatened by overfishing. North Carolina Wildlife and Fisheries officials attempted to control the herring population by restricting the annual catch. However, by 2007, the state basically shut down herring harvest in hopes that their numbers would eventually rebound.

Now, nine years later, local fisherman strongly believe that the herring population has improved to the point to allow the state to take a serious look at lifting its moratorium. However, there seems to be some discrepancy between what the local fishermen and state wildlife officials have observed in the way of numbers.

Last week, local fishermen attended Board of Commissioner meetings in both Northampton and Hertford counties, seeking resolutions from those local leaders to ask the state to end the herring fishing ban.

Roger Cofield represented the Concerned Citizens of Northampton County for the Restoration of Historical Herring Fishing at the Commissioners’ May 16 meeting in Jackson.

Read the full story at the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald 

Commercial fishermen: Net ban would destroy N.C. seafood industry

May 23, 2016 — A state House bill first introduced 16 years ago has been resurrected that would ban the use of large trawling nets in state waters, a move that the commercial fishing industry says could destroy the livelihood for most North Carolina fishermen.

New Bern native Billy Richardson, D­-Cumberland, filed a bill that would let voters decide whether to outlaw gill and certain other nets in all state coastal waters. If the N.C. General Assembly supports House Bill 1122, the binding referendum would be on the November election ballot.

“It would be the end of North Carolina’s (commercial) fishery,” said Wayne Dunbar, a waterman for nearly 40 years, located in Pamlico County’s Paradise Shores on Lower Broad Creek, leading into the Pamlico Sound. “People that don’t fish wouldn’t get North Carolina seafood.”

Dunbar said this time of the year most of the fishermen trawl inland waters for speckled trout, flounder, spot, croakers and menhaden. On a typical day, he will go out in his small boat with 300 yards of net and fill a fish box with about 300 pounds of seafood.

Dunbar, who studied fish and wildlife management at Wayne Community College, said a net ban also would be devastating to the crab industry, the largest of the state’s fisheries.

The bait includes menhaden and other fish caught in nets.

Read the full story at the New Bern Sun Journal

Atlantic red snapper closure extended through 2016

May 20, 2016 — Local anglers won’t be allowed to keep red snapper this year after federal fishery regulators announced Thursday they will keep the fish closed to harvesting, part of the government’s years-long and controversial plan to increase the species’ abundance.

The closure applies to red snapper caught in federal waters from Florida to North Carolina, a vast area ranging from 3 to 200 miles offshore where virtually all red snapper in the Atlantic Ocean are caught.

Red snapper have been strictly regulated since 2010 after a study by the federal government found that the species had been overfished for decades to dangerously low levels.

Read the full story at the Florida Times-Union

North Carolina votes to keep cobia season open

May 20, 2016 — The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries Commission voted Thursday to keep its state-waters cobia fishery open past a federally-ordered June 20 closing, putting the state in non-compliance with the South Atlantic Marine Fisheries Council.

But the commission made several drastic changes to size and bag limits, and severely cut the number of days that recreational anglers could keep the coveted species.

From May 23 to Sept. 30, charter boats will be able to fish every day with a four-fish limit per boat, with each fish measuring at least 37 inches. Pier and surf anglers also can fish every day, with one 37-inch minimum fish per person per day.

Read the full story at the Virginian-Pilot

Fishing forecast: Decision looms on whether to shut down cobia fishing

May 19, 2016 — Yes, it is starting to sound like a broken record. But the stakes are too high to not talk about cobia before an incredibly important meeting Tuesday at the Virginia Marine Resources Commission in Newport News.

The commission that afternoon will decide whether or not it will comply with federally ordered rules that will shut down cobia fishing along the East Coast on June 20.

North Carolina’s fisheries managers meet today and Friday to decide whether that state will go non-compliant. Should Carolina do so, the feds most likely would make the coastal closing date earlier.

The thing is, cobia in the two states are almost exclusively caught in state waters inside three miles. In the past, state agencies usually have adopted federal water rules in fear of suffering paybacks from the feds. But not always.

Read the full story at the Virginian-Pilot