March 29, 2021 — The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission is making plans to protect and preserve the southern flounder population off North Carolina’s coast, but its decision on how it will allocate the supply between recreational and commercial fishermen is causing people to get upset.
“The stock is in trouble, big trouble,” said the chair of the commission, Rob Bizzell, “And we’re looking at an overall 72 percent reduction in the take, which is significant. Some people are scared that the stock is going to collapse, and when the stock collapses, there’s no hope for recovery. We’re trying to avoid that.”
The commission is working on limiting the amount of the catch in a single season to around 500,000 fish. A recent vote by the commission to give the commercial industry approximately 70 percent of that supply and the recreational fishermen 30 percent of that supply is upsetting some.
“I got almost 900 letters of concern about the 30/70 allocation,” Bizzell said. “And, you know, for every one letter you get, good gracious, probably 20 or 30 individuals who feel the same way, but just don’t take the effort to speak up.”