Saving Seafood

News for the South Atlantic Region

NORTH CAROLINA: N.C. Coastal Fisheries Coalition expands advisory team, adopts resolutions on blue crab and sheepshead regulations

November 10, 2025 — The North Carolina Coastal Counties Fisheries Coalition met on Wednesday, November 5, in Morehead City, where members advanced several new initiatives and voiced unified opposition to recent regulatory proposals from the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF).

During the meeting, chairs of the coalition’s four standing committees—Education, Fishing Limits and Water Quality, Legislative, and Predation Management—shared updates on their initial work and priorities. The committees were formed in October to address key issues affecting the state’s commercial fishing industry.

Read the full article at Island Free Press

NORTH CAROLINA: Pamlico Sound survey continues without longtime research boat

November 7, 2025 — A state agency has been conducting research on aquatic life in an important North Carolina body of water since the late 1980s.

It’s collected valuable information that’s helped the state keep adequate fish stocks while protecting wild species.

Now, the boat that’s been used in this research for decades has been pulled out of the water.

Researchers have a plan to keep a valuable study afloat without their prized vessel, continuing a data set they’ve been building for decades.

“Our data is collected in the Pamlico Sound, it’s a very important region.” said Holly White, north district manager for the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.

White said the Pamlico Sound survey began in 1987.

Read th full article at Spectrum 1

Judge dismisses lawsuit claiming South Carolina restaurants sold imported shrimp under false claims it was local

November 5, 2025 — A federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit brought by the South Carolina Shrimpers Association, which alleged that local restaurants had violated federal and state law in selling imported shrimp.

“We are incredibly disappointed that a judge dismissed our ‘Shrimpgate’ lawsuit, denying us the chance to present the undisputed DNA evidence of shrimp fraud in the Lowcountry,” the association said in a statement. “This ruling hurts shrimpers, consumers, and the many honest restaurants that work hard to serve you real local shrimp. Once again, it feels like big money is winning over the truth.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NORTH CAROLINA: Pound for pound, North Carolina’s pound net fishery delivers

October 31, 2025 — For more than 150 years, North Carolina fishermen have been using pound nets. Gaither Midgette is among those keeping the fishery going.

Before the Civil War, the American shad fishery in the South was dominated by aristocrats, including George Washington. Plantation owners with deep pockets invested what would be millions of dollars today into the gear and infrastructure needed to harvest shad with haul seines of 2,000 yards or more. They depleted the resource, and during the Civil War in North Carolina, the Union Army destroyed most of the boats, nets, and buildings needed for the haul seine fishery. In 1863, North Carolina outlawed the fishery for the duration of the war in order to keep shad from being commandeered by, or sold to, Union Army commissaries.

The pause in the harvest during the war led to rebounding stocks, and in 1869, the Hattrick brothers brought the pound net to North Carolina. Pound nets required a much smaller investment and provided a higher return than haul seines. A few haul seine operations remained, but increasingly, the shad fishery belonged to the common people. In addition, the pound nets often caught higher-value species at a time when ice was introduced to preserve the catch, and those fish could be shipped to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York.

Over a hundred years later, the shad fishery has shrunk to almost nothing, but small-scale fishermen are still working the pound nets in Pamlico, Albemarle, and Croatan Sounds, and Gaither Midgette of Wanchese is among them. At 5:30 on a warm August morning, he fires up the 30-HP Honda 4-stroke on his pound skiff, a 20-foot by 6-foot wooden boat planked crossways on its flat bottom. “It’s all juniper-planked,” says Midgette. “The sides are all juniper, too. Glen Bradley built it about 20 years ago.” He steers down the canal from Spencer Yachts to the open water of Croatan Sound, between Roanoke Island and the mainland. “It won’t take too long. We’ll be finished by 7:30,” he says.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Fisheries commission again holds fire on striped bass limits

October 31, 2025 — With a glimmer of hopeful news about harvest pressure and a warning from commercial fishermen that their economic survival is at stake, East Coast fishery managers have pulled back from ordering another round of catch restrictions on struggling Atlantic striped bass.

Meeting in Dewey Beach, DE, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted Oct. 29 not to require any additional cuts in either the recreational or commercial catch of the migratory finfish known as rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay.

The vote against tightening already-strict catch limits came after more than a year of debate by the panel, which regulates nearshore fishing on migratory species along the Atlantic coast. Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and North Carolina voted for more restrictions.

Widely regarded as the most prized finfish in the Chesapeake and along the Atlantic Coast, striped bass were declared overfished in 2019, with the number of large female fish below what was needed to sustain the population. The commission responded by ordering a series of catch reductions in ensuing years aiming to rebuild the stock by 2029.

Read the full article at Bay Journal

Menhaden board cuts amount harvesters can catch along the Atlantic next year

October 30, 2025 — The coastwide catch limit will be reduced by 20%, which is less than environmental and recreational fishing groups had hoped after a recently reported decline in the menhaden population.

Officials who regulate the Atlantic menhaden industry continue to wrestle with how to balance the fishery business with growing concerns about the ecosystem.

After hours of back-and-forth and competing motions, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted Tuesday to reduce the coastwide catch limit by 20% for next year’s season.

The compromise was less than what environmental groups and recreational anglers wanted and more than the industry did. Virginia’s delegation voted against it.

Board members agreed to revisit the topic next fall, with the potential for further cuts for 2027 and 2028.

The commission helps manage fisheries for 15 states along the East Coast, from Florida to Maine. That includes setting the total allowable catch, or TAC, the maximum amount of menhaden that can be harvested along the coast.

Virginia is allocated about 75% of the total because it’s the last East Coast state that permits menhaden reduction fishing.

Ocean Harvesters, which operates a fishing fleet to supply Omega Protein, collects menhaden by using large walls of netting called purse seines. Omega then processes, or “reduces,” them into fishmeal and fish oil at a plant in Reedville.

Read the full article at the WHRO

Southern states ask US government to hand over control of red snapper management

October 29, 2025 — Officials from three Southern states are again asking the U.S. federal government to cede its regulatory authority over red snapper fishing in the South Atlantic Ocean to state governments, arguing that more local control of the species will be better for the fisheries.

While the South Atlantic red snapper fishery is federally designated as subject to overfishing, recreational fishers claim the fish population is far greater than official numbers, and state representatives and officials have resisted all efforts to limit fishing.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

What’s working, what’s not in the shutdown

October 28, 2025 — The U.S. government shutdown has led to some concerns among fishermen and dealers regarding permit renewals. Among other things, the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Region Permits Office has been unable to process renewals, with some permit holders finding their renewal applications in limbo.

Those with permits expiring during the shutdown have been reassured by the Southeast Regional Permit Office that their permits will remain valid even after their expiration dates, provided they have submitted their renewal applications prior to the existing permit’s expiration. The Southeast Permit Office notification applies to This notification applies to all Gulf of America, South Atlantic, and Highly Migratory Species vessel permits, and dealer permits.

“The permit extension issued by NOAA Fisheries minimizes the potential impact of a government shutdown on shrimpers who file for permit renewals in a timely fashion. We have not heard that permit delays are causing any disruption to normal fishing operations,” says Blake Price, deputy director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA).

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

South Atlantic states want feds to cede oversight of red snapper

October 28, 2025 — Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are pushing the Commerce Department to cede regulatory authority over South Atlantic red snapper in federal waters to state agencies, arguing that NOAA’s management of the highly popular species is based on flawed science and harming Atlantic Coast sportfishing economies.

In an Oct. 17 letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the states’ attorneys general asked for the immediate transfer of responsibility for conducting population surveys for snapper and other reef fish that are targeted by recreational fishermen. The three states also want authority over snapper catch limits, fishing season openings and closings, and the permitting of fishing vessels plying federal waters beyond 3 nautical miles of a state’s shoreline.

The letter asks Lutnick “to use whatever tools are at your disposal” to facilitate handing over management authority, including “exempted fishing permits” that can be granted by NOAA to allow research projects on data collection, low-impact fishing and conservation.

Read the full article at E&E News

Florida’s Oldest Seafood Trade Group Joins Menhaden Debate, Defending Science-Based Management

October 27, 2025 — The following was released by the Southeastern Fisheries Association:

The Southeastern Fisheries Association (SFA) — established in 1952 and describing itself as Florida’s oldest seafood industry association with members ranging from fishermen and boat owners to processors, markets, bait providers, restaurants, transportation companies, for-hire charter operators, and consumers from North Carolina through Texas — has urged the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Menhaden Management Board to reject drastic new quota reductions and keep management rooted in the fishery’s risk framework and established reference points.

In a formal letter to the Commission, SFA pointed to the most recent ecological reference point (ERP) assessment, which, the group wrote, “again found that the stock is not overfished and overfishing is not occurring,” adding that “management has consistently been more conservative than single-species reference points would have historically prescribed.”

The association said those findings demonstrate that current controls are already protecting the resource.  “The probability of exceeding the ERP F THRESHOLD under current management is low,” the letter states.  Because of that low risk, SFA argued against the sweeping 55-percent harvest cuts being discussed by some commissioners and outside advocates.

Instead, SFA proposed a narrowly precautionary adjustment to the coast-wide total allowable catch (TAC).  “The coastwide TAC should not be reduced by more than a precautionary 10 percent (i.e., no lower than 210,195 metric tons). This would ensure no chance of overfishing in 2026 and only about a 1 percent probability if maintained through 2027–2028.”  The association emphasized that anything more severe would be inconsistent with the science and the Commission’s own risk analysis.

The letter also reminded commissioners of the guiding fairness standard contained in the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Interstate Fisheries Management Program Charter: “Management measures shall be designed to achieve equivalent management results throughout the range of a stock.”  SFA cautioned against using allocation changes to offset or disguise politically motivated quota reductions, arguing that management should remain consistent across jurisdictions.

On Chesapeake Bay issues, SFA advised the Board to hold off on any new restrictions until the recently funded Bay-specific research is complete. “The Board should await this new and relevant science before taking further action.” the association wrote, referring to the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS) study now underway to design a scientifically defensible Bay harvest cap.

SFA concluded that the Commission’s present management already provides a strong, precautionary framework.  By the association’s own assessment, “The probability of exceeding the ERP F THRESHOLD under current management is low,” and therefore, it said, “The coastwide TAC should not be reduced by more than a precautionary 10 percent.”  The group urged commissioners to let those numbers — not politics — guide their decision.

Read the full letter here