Saving Seafood

NORTH CAROLINA: Marine Fisheries meetings planned for Feb. 15-16

February 8, 2017 — The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission will meet over two days instead of the usual three for its Feb. 15-16 meeting in Wilmington, and time for public comment will be included.

At the meeting at the Hilton Wilmington Riverside, 301 N. Water St., the business sessions will start at noon Feb. 15 and at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 16. Among items on the agenda is the N.C. Wildlife Federation petition for rulemaking regarding shrimp trawling season, along with potential cobia management measures and decisions on hard clam and oyster management.

Public comment will be heard at 3 p.m. Feb. 15. First to speak will be members of the public who signed up to speak about the petition during a Jan. 17 meeting but did not get to speak before time ran out. Afterward, anyone from the public may speak on fisheries-related topics.

Deliberation and voting on the petition is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 16. A complete agenda can be found at http://bit.ly/2k3WCat.

Up to 200 visitors may listen to a webcast and view presentations at http://bit.ly/2kP9gcU. An audio file will be posted after the meeting.

NORTH CAROLINA: Fisheries committees vote against further regulations

January 18, 2017 — NEW BERN, N.C. — Five North Carolina fisheries committees have rejected a proposal to further regulate shrimp trawling after a public meeting that ended with 60 people waiting to speak.

The Sun Journal of New Bern reports (http://bit.ly/2jZDKVo) the committees voted Tuesday to recommend that the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission deny the request from the state Wildlife Federation for more regulations.

The nonprofit conservation group’s petition wanted to reduce the number of days shrimp trawlers could fish, how much they could fish and where they could trawl in North Carolina waters.

So many people spoke against the petition that the chairman of the panel had to stop the public hearing while 60 people were still signed up to speak.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the News & Record

Feds continue to discuss potential new regulations for turtle excluder devices

April 22, 2016 — The federal government is considering new requirements and regulations for turtle excluder devices to reduce sea turtle bycatch in shrimp fisheries.

Michael Barnett, a fisheries biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, said it has been documented that there are an abundance of turtles in the Gulf of Mexico in the same areas and at the same times that skimmer trawl fisheries operate.

Through the use of TEDs and protecting nesting sites, turtle populations have had a “dramatic increase,” Barnett said. However, with a number of catches being seen in skimmer trawls, it is necessary for NOAA to look into rules regarding bycatch in skimmers.

Notably from the data already collecting, Barnett said, is that the turtles being seen in the bycatch were small, young turtles that could have passed through the 4-inch bar spacing of standard TEDs.

Read the full story at Houma Today

JERRY SCHILL: Kinston authors’ proposal would hurt North Carolinians

March 21, 2016 — The following is an excerpt of a Letter-to-the-Editor written by Jerry Schill, President of the North Carolina Fisheries Association:

In response to a letter to the editor, “Thoughts on marine fisheries,” Wednesday, March 16, I offer the following comments. It should be noted that the Kinston authors sent the letter to several media outlets.

On the subject of shrimp trawling, the writers fail to acknowledge the many studies done by researchers over the years that have documented bycatch associated with this fishery and that despite decades of trawling, overall benthic productivity is dramatically increased. They also ignore the efforts by commercial fishermen to work proactively to reduce bycatch. Those studies began in the late 1980s and resulted with bycatch reduction devices in shrimp trawls. Currently, even though North Carolina is ahead of federal requirements to reduce bycatch, there is cooperative research ongoing to reduce it even further.

According to Kevin Brown, a gear development biologist with the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, biologists and fishermen were amazed how effective the test devices have been. “I am pleasantly shocked at where we are,” he stated at a recent workshop of a bycatch reduction team that includes state biologists, net makers, boat owners, shrimp boat captains and Sea Grant. It should also be noted that nearly 50% of the Pamlico Sound is already off limits to shrimp trawling due to the status of primary or secondary nursery areas, which were so designated with the support of the North Carolina Fisheries Association many years ago.

Read the full letter at the Carteret County News-Times