Saving Seafood

Search suspended for missing NC boater after fisherman dies, Coast Guard says

September 12, 2017 — WILMINGTON, N.C. — Coast Guard Sector North Carolina suspended its search Sunday for a fisherman reported overdue with two others near Bogue Inlet Friday.

The fishing trip off the North Carolina coast ended with one man recovered, another who died and the third who is still missing.

This is the second case in two weeks in North Carolina of boaters vanishing along the coast while fishing. In late August, two men who left Oak Island to go fishing were reported missing and their empty boat was later found along the South Carolina coast.

Read the full story at CBS North Carolina

Red Snapper Special Session – SAFMC Meeting – September 11-15, 2017 in Charleston, SC

August 28, 2017 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

Meeting Location:

Town and Country Inn

2008 Savannah Highway

Charleston, SC 29407      

Phone: Reservations: 843/571-1000

Agenda Highlights  

  • Full Council Session – Monday, September 11
    Harvest Options for Red Snapper 
    The Council will hold a special session from 9:00 am until 5:00 pm on Monday of the meeting week to specifically address measures to allow harvest of red snapper. The Council will review alternatives in Snapper Grouper Amendment 43 to determine an annual catch limit for red snapper and allow a limited season in 2018. The Council will also consider options to request that NOAA Fisheries take emergency action for a red snapper mini-season in October 2017.

    • Red Snapper Public Comment – Monday, September 11 at 10:15 am
      Public comment will be solicited on measures proposed in Amendment 43 to allow for a limited harvest of red snapper in 2018 and options for requesting emergency action for harvest in 2017.  The Council is scheduled to take action during Monday’s Full Council Session.  Can’t attend? Provide your comments online and register to attend via webinar as the meeting occurs (see below).
  • Snapper Grouper Committee The committee will continue to review measures proposed for both recreational (Regulatory Amendment 26) and commercial (Regulatory Amendment 27) sectors as identified through the Council’s 2016-2020 Vision Blueprint. Measures include reducing the recreational size limit for black sea bass, commercial split seasons and more.
  • Mackerel Cobia Committee The committee will receive an update on the development of an interstate fishery management plan for Atlantic cobia (Georgia through New York) by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. A public hearing will be held during the meeting week (see below). Options to modify the current commercial trip limit for king mackerel will also be reviewed.

Local red snapper might be back on the South Carolina plate

August 14, 2017 — The fresher the fish the better. And the savory red snapper is the fish they all want — the fire-up-the-grill catch for the weekend angler, the sought-after restaurant plate, the mainstay of seafood stores.

Lately the snapper on the plate isn’t local. It comes from the Gulf of Mexico.

But this fall, for the first time since 2014, South Carolina anglers might be able to catch red snappers offshore and keep them.

Federal fishery regulators are looking at a “mini season” of maybe a few weekends to allow anglers to harvest the fish they have been forced to throw back since 2014.

That’s when the harvest was closed off, to try to rebuild what was thought to be a depleted stock.

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council meets Sept. 11 in Charleston to decide. They also will look at allowing a season in July 2018, a measure that would go to public hearings later in the year.

Read the full story at the Post and Courier

SAFMC Fishery Social Scientist Position Open

July 26, 2017 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is currently soliciting applicants for a Fishery Social Scientist to join its staff at the Council’s headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina. The Fishery Social Scientist is responsible for all aspects of social analysis for the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council as it relates to managing fisheries stocks through fishery management plans.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

The Social Scientist conducts social impact assessments, fishery impact statements, and assists with analyses of socio-economic data related to fishery management actions and development of appropriate documents, including fishery management plans/amendments and environmental impact statements. The Social Scientist is expected to present analyses to various groups (e.g., fishermen, scientists, advisory panels, and Council members) and also compile and analyze social, anthropological, socio-economic, and other data.

Additional Information:

For the complete position description and information on how to apply, visit the Council’s website: http://safmc.net/other-fishery-news/position-available-with-the-safmc/. 

SAFMC: Actions to Implement Spawning Special Management Zones in Federal Waters of the South Atlantic Region

July 6, 2017 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

NOAA Fisheries announces a final rule for Amendment 36 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region (Amendment 36). The actions in Amendment 36 and the final rule will implement spawning special management zones (SMZ) to protect spawning, or reproducing, fish and their habitat.

WHEN RULE WILL TAKE EFFECT:

  • Regulations will be effective July 31, 2017

WHAT THIS MEANS:

The final rule for Amendment 36 will implement the following management measures:

  • Implement five spawning SMZs in federal waters of the South Atlantic region off North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida (see map and coordinates below).
  • Inside of the spawning SMZs, fishing for, retention, and possession of fish species in the snapper-grouper complex will be prohibited year-round by all fishers.
  • Anchoring inside all the spawning SMZs, except Area 51 and Area 53 off South Carolina, will be prohibited.
  • Transit through the spawning SMZs with snapper-grouper species onboard will be allowed if gear is properly stowed.
  • Most spawning SMZs would automatically go away in 10 years unless they are reauthorized.
  • Modify the SMZ procedure in the fishery management plan to allow for the designation of spawning SMZs. In addition, modify the framework procedure to allow spawning SMZs to be established or modified through the framework process, rather than through plan amendments.
  • Move the existing Charleston Deep Artificial Reef Marine Protected Area to match the boundaries of the permitted site.

NOTE: For a list of coordinates for each Spawning SMZ and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), please see the complete Fishery Bulletin from NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office by clicking here.

View this and other Fishery Bulletins from NOAA Fisheries by visiting the website at: http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishery_bulletins/index.html.   

SEAMAP Releases 5-Year Management Plan

April 19, 2017 — The following was released by the Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program:

The Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) has released its 2016-2020 Management Plan. Prepared by the South Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean components of SEAMAP, the Management Plan serves as a reference for official SEAMAP policies and procedures through 2020. The Plan also includes detailed information on SEAMAP activities and highlights how SEAMAP data meet critical needs for recent stock assessments and management decisions. Lastly and perhaps most importantly, the Plan details how SEAMAP’s core surveys have been impacted by level/declining funding. It identifies how expansions in funding could be used to refine existing assessments and advance the movement towards ecosystem-based management; ultimately, leading to more comprehensive fisheries management in the Southeast region.

SEAMAP is a cooperative state/federal/university program for the collection, management, and dissemination of fishery-independent data and information in the Southeastern U.S. and Caribbean. Representatives from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) jointly plan and conduct surveys of economically and ecologically important fish and shellfish species and the critical habitats that support them. Since 1982, SEAMAP has sponsored long-term standardized surveys that have become the backbone of fisheries and habitat management in the Southeast and Caribbean. SEAMAP currently provides the only region-wide mechanism for monitoring long-term status and trends of populations and habitats within the region.

As a cooperative effort, SEAMAP monitors the distribution and abundance of fish and other marine resources from North Carolina through Texas and into the Caribbean. SEAMAP is intended to maximize the capability of fishery-independent and associated survey activities to satisfy data and information needs of living marine resource management and research organizations in the region. The primary means of performing that task is to optimize coordination and deployment of regional surveys and provide access to the collected data through documents and online databases. Additional roles of SEAMAP are to document long- and short-term needs for fishery-independent data to meet critical management and research needs, and to establish compatible and consistent databases for ecosystem and predictive modeling applications. SEAMAP promotes coordination among data collection, processing, management, and analysis activities emphasizing those specifically concerned with living marine resource management and habitat protection, and provides a forum for coordination of other fishery-related activities.

The 2016-2020 SEAMAP Management Plan is available online at: http://bit.ly/2pw1qXM. For more information about SEAMAP, particularly the South Atlantic component, please visit www.SEAMAP.org or contact Shanna Madsen, SEAMAP-SA Coordinator, at smadsen@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.      

Recruitment Announcement: Financial Assistant

March 31, 2017 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council: 

Recruitment Announcement:

Financial Assistant

Deadline for Submitting Applications – April 21, 2017

Title: Financial Assistant

Location:

South Atlantic Fishery Management Council

4055 Faber Place Drive, Suite 201

North Charleston, SC 29405  USA

Background:

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is currently seeking applicants for the position of Financial Assistant.

The Financial Assistant is responsible for providing effective financial services in support of the Council’s program activities involving planning, implementing, and evaluating various financial activities.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Bag limit reduction added to flounder bill

February 27, 2017 — Changes are afoot with a bill that has designs on changing limits for South Carolina’s population of flounder.

Bill H 3665 in its original form was set to increase the minimum size limit for flounder from the current 14 inches to 15 inches in Palmetto State waters.

But on Wednesday in the house’s Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee, reductions to the daily bag limit were added to the bill. The current limits are 15 per person per day with a boat limit of 30 per day.

The bill now includes reducing the bag limits to 10 per person with a boat limit of 20 per boat per day, along with the one-inch increase in minimum size limit.

Rep. Lee Hewitt, R-Georgetown, a member of the Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee and co-signer of the legislation, said feedback from anglers fueled the addition of bag limit reduction to the bill.

Hewitt has heard from flounder fishermen in the Little River area who are concerned with anglers from North Carolina fishing South Carolina waters to take advantage of the more lenient limits. North Carolina currently has a daily bag limit of six flounder per person and a minimum size limit of 15 inches.

Proposed legislation could lead to larger flounder population in S.C. waters

February 10, 2017 — A bump up in the size limit could be on the horizon for South Carolina’s population of flounder, and nowhere on the Palmetto State coast is flounder fishing more popular than along the Grand Strand from Georgetown to Little River.

The current minimum size limit for flounder is 14 inches, and proposed legislation calls for a 1-inch increase to 15 inches.

South Carolina House of Representatives Bill H 3665, which proposes the increase in size limit, was introduced and first read on Feb. 2 and was referred to the Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee.

In recent years, flounder in local estuaries have received unprecedented pressure from hook-and-line anglers and giggers as the coastal population has exploded.

Long-term trammel net sampling by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources in eight major estuaries along the coast, including Georgetown County’s Winyah Bay, has revealed a steady decline in the southern flounder population since 1994. Also, according to the agency, reported charter boat catch rates have declined over the same time frame.

Read the full story at MyrtleBeachOnline.com

New flounder regulations proposed in South Carolina

February 3, 2017 — The first step was taken this week to increase the size limit for flounder in South Carolina’s waters. H 3665 General Bill was introduced into the South Carolina State House by Rep. Bill Hixon of District 83.

The new bill proposes to move the flounder size limit from the current 14 inches to 15 inches. The creel limit remains unchanged by this proposal (15 per angler, not to exceed 30 per boat).

The bill also does not mention any changes to gigging regulations.

Capt. Englis Glover of Murrells Inlet is in support of the new proposal.

“With the growing number of anglers targeting flounder on our water, it is a proactive movement to protect our fish for future generations,” said Glover, who also encourages others to reach out to their legislators for support of the bill.

Read the full story at the Carolina Sportsman