Saving Seafood

NORTH CAROLINA: North Carolina Seafood Festival connec4ts communities through local seafood

October 3, 2024 — The 38th annual North Carolina Seafood Festival is returning to Morehead City this weekend. The N.C. Department of Agriculture said events like this really help connect the community with the state’s vital seafood production industry.

North Carolina’s seafood industry contributes nearly $300 million and thousands of jobs to the state’s economy. The NC Seafood Festival’s Executive Director, Virginia Yopp said the festival is all about getting back to the roots of the North Carolina community.

“It’s really what it’s about. You know, it’s about seafood from this area. We have a diverse diversification of fish that is unlike anywhere else.”

Yopp said one way that the festival is showcasing local seafood providers is through Got To Be NC verification.

Read the full article at PRE

Death toll rises from Helene while supplies are rushed to North Carolina and Florida digs out

September 30, 2024 — Authorities struggled to get water and other supplies to isolated, flood-stricken areas across the U.S. Southeast in the wake of Hurricane Helene as the death toll from the storm rose to nearly 100.

A North Carolina county that includes the mountain city of Asheville reported 30 people killed due to the storm, and several other fatalities reported in North Carolina Sunday pushed the overall death toll to at least 91 people across several states.

Supplies were being airlifted to the region around the isolated city. Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder pledged that she would have food and water into Ashville — which is known for its arts, culture and natural attractions — by Monday.

“We hear you. We need food and we need water,” Pinder said on a Sunday call with reporters. “My staff has been making every request possible to the state for support and we’ve been working with every single organization that has reached out. What I promise you is that we are very close.”

Read the full article at The Associated Press

North Carolina Oyster Restoration Project Trains the Next Generation of Marine Scientists

September 9, 2024 — The North Carolina Coastal Federation is taking a new, transformational approach to restoration. They are partnering with the state Division of Marine Fisheries to construct more than 100 acres of oyster reef habitat in the Pamlico Sound. They’re also preparing science students to tackle the country’s conservation and coastal resilience challenges. NOAA’s Office of Habitat Conservation awarded the Federation $14.9 million through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act for this work.

They are partnering with North Carolina State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology (CMAST) and North Carolina Central University (NCCU), a Historically Black University. These partnerships are expanding opportunities for underrepresented students.

“With climate change, sea level rise, and all the other things the environment is experiencing, we need to train the next generation of restoration practitioners,” says Dr. Dave Eggleston, Director of CMAST. “We also know that the more diverse the workforce, the better the ideas generated.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

NORTH CAROLINA: Commercial-recreational flounder fishery dispute flares in North Carolina

August 23, 2024 — A conflict between commercial and recreational fishermen in the U.S. state of North Carolina may be resolved at the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission meeting, which runs through Friday, 23 August.

Tensions between the two groups flared after NCMFC Chair Rob Bizzell insisted his panel will not open the state’s southern flounder fishery to recreational anglers this year. However, a July vote by the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission (WRC) approved a hook-and-line recreational season for 1, 2, 7, and 8 September, with a daily limit of one fish per angler and a minimum size of 15 inches within the waters that fall under the commission’s jurisdiction, which include waters that the MFC also oversees.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

The Long Road to Ropeless Fishing

August 21, 2024 — The past decade has not been kind to North Atlantic right whales—or to the fishers who ply the waters where these massive mammals dwell. For the whales that migrate along the North American east coast between Florida and Canada each spring and fall, several perils have caused their population to fall catastrophically, including getting tangled in fishing gear, hit by boats, or afflicted by climate change. From a modern high of 480 individuals in 2010, their numbers have plummeted more than 25 percent to about 350 today.

But fishers have suffered, too. In an attempt to protect the withering whale population, government agencies have restricted fishing gear and closed fisheries along the Eastern Seaboard. For many fishers—including Michael “Chops” Cowdrey Jr., a captain based out of Sneads Ferry, North Carolina—the closures were financially devastating.

Cowdrey is just one of 32 members of the small Atlantic sea bass pot fishery—a community of fishers operating from Florida to North Carolina who use traps on vertical lines to catch the bulldog-sized fish. Cowdrey lost much of his income when, in 2013, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) began imposing a seasonal closure on the pot fishery from November to April—peak sea bass season.

Read the full article at Hakai Magazine

Flounder fishery dispute grows as August meeting approaches

August 15, 2024 — The flounder conflict continues into next week’s North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) meeting, which will be held in Raleigh from Aug. 21-23. The bone of contention is between the MFC and the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission (WRC) about this year’s recreational flounder season.

The only agenda items for the meeting mention flounder, including a report from the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries staff on the Southern Flounder Stock Assessment Update and the 2023 Southern Flounder landings. According to Island Free Press, the report is expected to be the basis for deciding how much quota is available for a commercial season in the sounds and coastal rivers that has previously taken place in September and October.

The MFC chairman, Rob Bizzell, insists that his panel will not open the flounder fishery to recreational anglers this year. However, a vote last month by the NC WRC would allow recreational fishing, which would be a hook-and-line season for Sept. 1, 2, 7, and 8 with a daily limit of one fish per angler and a minimum size of 15 inches within the waters that fall under their jurisdiction. The areas would include joint waters that the MFC also oversees, creating controversy over whether or not to open the recreational season.

WRC chair Monty Crump has been trading letters with Bizzell to hold an emergency meeting to reconsider how southern flounder is allocated between commercial and recreational sectors to allow the recreational season in all waters. Bizzell said in letters, “MFC will be sticking to its plan adopted this spring to not allow a recreational season for flounder this year.” He also stated that fishermen who try to keep flounder caught in or transported through both coastal and joint waters will be subject to enforcement efforts of the NC Marine Patrol.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NORTH CAROLINA: Local rep, fishermen call on state to improve fishery management after flounder season cancellation

August 12, 2024 — Recreational fishermen have been barred from catching the state’s most valued finifish, the Southern flounder, this year because they exceeded last year’s quota. But anglers say this season’s cancellation reflects a larger management issue at the state level.

The Division of Marine Fisheries, part of North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality, announced the cancellation of the season, set for two weeks in September, on May 23.

Calculations from the 2023 season indicate the recreational catch of Southern flounder exceeded the quota allowed under the stock rebuilding plan set by the state in 2022.

Over two decades ago, state researchers determined Southern flounder were overfished and overfishing was occurring. The two terms carry different meanings: overfished is when a population is below a level needed to sustain itself, and overfishing means they are actively being caught at an unsustainable rate.

Limits were put on recreational and commercial anglers with the goal of rebuilding the flounder population. Per the current management plan, commercial fishermen are allocated 70% of the stock while recreational anglers get 30%, based on the proportion of flounder historically caught by commercial and recreational fishermen. However, the goal is for the groups to reach parity in 2026.

Read the full article at NJ Spotlight News

NORTH CAROLINA: Dominion Energy to acquire offshore wind lease in $160M deal near Kitty Hawk, N.C.

July 10, 2024 — Dominion Energy is set to acquire an offshore wind lease from Avangrid, Inc., near Kitty Hawk, N.C., for approximately $160 million providing another potential option to meet the growing demand for electric use.

Virginia Electric and Power Company, a subsidiary of Dominion, announced the agreement this week.

If approved by regulators and constructed, the offshore facility would have a capacity of 800 MW, enough capacity to serve 200,000 homes and businesses, and the project would connect to the company’s transmission grid.

Read the full article at Augusta Free Press

North Carolina Wildlife Federation Calls for Inshore Shrimp Trawling Ban

June 13, 2024 — N.C. Wildlife Federation (NCWF) CEO Tim Gestwicki called on state legislators Tuesday to “put a stop to inshore shrimp trawling as soon as possible.”

In a news release, Gestwicki said the call is in response to the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries (NCDMF) canceling the recreational southern flounder season for 2024.

“This is the first time that decision has had to be made, but the writing has been on the wall for a long time,” Gestwicki said. “Southern flounder and other important fisheries in North Carolina are in dire condition, and strong action is needed now to save them. While there are many reasons why southern flounder and other fisheries fall under overfished and overfishing status, one of the most significant contributing factors is bycatch from inshore shrimp trawling. That’s why allowing this practice in our sounds must stop now and shrimp trawling should only take place in coastal ocean waters.

“Bycatch is the unintended part of a catch taken because of the non-selectivity of the fishing gear used, in this case, shrimp trawls,” he continued. “The most reliable bycatch study done to date shows that for every pound of shrimp harvested in North Carolina’s waters (most of which are caught by trawls), over four pounds of non-target catch, including juvenile finfish, such as southern flounder, are discarded.”

Gestwicki said North Carolina is the only state on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts that still allows large-scale shrimp trawling in its estuaries.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com