May 10, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Commission’s South Atlantic State/Federal Fisheries Management Board approved Draft Amendment 1 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Atlantic Migratory Group Cobia (Atlantic cobia) for public comment. Atlantic coastal states from Virginia through South Carolina have scheduled their hearings to gather public input on Draft Amendment 1. The details of those hearings follow.
April 29, 2019 — Larry Mcclellan can look from the porch of his century-old farmhouse out across Jeremy Creek where the shrimp boats rock under their hanging nets.
Mcclellan captains one of the boats there and his son captains another. The creek, which leads to the rich Bulls Bay shellfish waters, is his livelihood and his life. The hub of it all, where the boats are moored, is the Carolina Seafood dock.
That’s how integral Carolina Seafood owner Rutledge Leland’s business is to McClellanville, the modest fishing village north of Charleston.
The seafood dock is the cultural heart of the place. And it could be lost.
Mcclellan was among a roomful of town residents who turned out at a Charleston County Greenbelt meeting last week to support an East Cooper Land Trust request for funding to conserve the Carolina Seafood dock as an open space and cultural heritage worth protecting with sales tax dollars, but also as a business.
April 26, 2019 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
Spring is in the air – and that means fishing! Beginning May 1st, fishermen will have a few more species to target in South Atlantic federal waters (greater than 3 miles off the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and the east coast of Florida). May 1st marks the beginning of the shallow-water grouper season, following the annual spawning season closure from January 1st through April 30th.
Regulations also change for red porgy, greater amberjack, snowy grouper, and several other species.
Check out the latest blog for more details.
Always Have the Latest Regulations with You!
Before heading offshore, download the Fish Rules mobile application. Then simply check for updates before your next fishing trip and you’ll have the information with you no matter how far your fishing trip takes you. No signal? No problem. None required to access the correct information once the app is updated.
Fish Rules Download:
iPhone or
Android
Questions? Contact Cameron Rhodes, Outreach Specialist at cameron.rhodes@safmc.net or Kim Iverson, Public Information Officer at kim.iverson@safmc.net or call the Council Office at 843/224-7258.
April 25, 2019 — As cross-arguments continue between the many parties in a federal lawsuit seeking to block seismic testing off coastal waters of East Coast states, three more municipalities in the Carolinas will get their voices heard, while the federal government tries to get some of South Carolina’s specific claims tossed.
Conservation groups, including Georgia’s One Hundred Miles, filed the suit in December in order to stop the seismic testing that is the precursor to offshore oil and gas drilling. The federal government already awarded five companies permits for incidental harassment of marine mammals that would occur during seismic testing.
The federal defendants — the National Marine Fisheries Services, NMFS Assistant Administrator Chris Oliver and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross — argue in a Monday filing that South Carolina “states four novel and legally baseless theories raised by no other party in this suit.”
Those claims, according to the federal attorneys, are that 2017 orders by the president and the Commerce secretary were invalid because “they retract putative policies” from the Obama administration, that they seismic testing is a public nuisance, that any survey activities would constitute trespassing and that the survey activities violate admiralty law.
April 25, 2019 — Wednesday, 24 April, marked the start of the commercial shrimping season in South Carolina, U.S.A., with fisherman taking to the water two months earlier than they had been able to do in 2018, according to a report from state newspaper the Post and Courier.
A warmer winter has been cited as the reason behind the early start, the newspaper said. State shrimpers like Tommy Edwards, who works out of Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant, are meeting the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) decision to open the fishery now with enthusiasm.
“It’s looking promising this year because it’s not July,” Edwards told the Post and Courier. “I don’t think we’ll see a lot of shrimp at first but at least we can get to work.”
The fishery appears to be bouncing back after experiencing the fifth worst die-off of shrimp and other species seen since the 1950’s in January 2018, when a cold snap of snow and ice rattled the region.
April 18, 2019 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council will hold several advisory panel and public hearing/scoping meetings in the coming weeks on topics affecting federal fisheries management off the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and the east coast of Florida. Fishermen and others interested in offshore fisheries are encouraged to attend the meetings and provide their viewpoints and comments.
All meetings are open to the public and available via webinar. Meeting materials, including agendas/overviews, public comment forms, briefing book materials, and presentations, are available from the Council’s website at: http://safmc.net/safmc-meetings/ as noted below. The Council encourages the public to use public comment forms available from the website. Use of the public comment forms allows Council members access to comments as they are provided, as well as access to members of the public.
ADVISORY PANEL MEETINGS
Access all meeting materials, including agendas, briefing book materials, webinar registration links, and public comment forms for upcoming advisory panel meetings: http://safmc.net/safmc-meetings/current-advisory-panel-meetings/.
April 1, 2019 — A freshman Shore congressman has introduced a bill to ban offshore drilling and seismic testing off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
The Coastal and Marine Economies Protection Act, proposed by Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Democrat representing most of South Jersey and the southern half of the state’s coastal areas, and Rep. Joe Cunningham of South Carolina, would permanently ban oil and gas leasing.
“Our local economy is dependent on fishing, tourism and wildlife watching – the bottom line is offshore oil and gas drilling isn’t worth the risk,” Van Drew said. “It is time to get rid of the harmful and dangerous practice of offshore drilling once and for all.”
The congressman expects the Department of Interior to include both coasts in its next five-year Oil and Gas Leasing Program.
The National Marine Fisheries Service authorized permits late last year under the Marine Mammal Protection Act for five companies to use air guns for seismic surveys from Delaware to central Florida.
March 27, 2019 — Aquaculture entrepreneurs and researchers seeking capital for ventures and technologies supporting sustainable seafood or the marine environment are encouraged to join a Fish 2.0 workshop at the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Marine Campus on 23-24 April.
The event is part of the Fish 2.0 initiative and established businesses from the US South Atlantic coast (Maryland, DC, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and the Atlantic coast of Florida) involved in seafood supply chains, climate resilience technologies, or seafood production, including aquaculture, wild harvesting or trade are eligible to apply at no cost.
“If you know of technologies being commercialised at universities or ventures getting started in your state, please forward this message. We want to help those entrepreneurs meet investors that can fund these important ventures,” say Fish 2.0’s organisers.
Fish 2.0 is a year-long global programme that connects entrepreneurs with business-building resources and a network of investors and innovators that are shaping the future of fisheries, aquaculture, and the marine ecosystem.
March 25, 2019 — Shrimp boats from North Carolina pulled up to the McClellanville dock last week, loaded down with catch.
They had been trawling unrestricted ocean waters along the North Carolina-Virginia state line — in other words, hauling in shrimp that spawned in the Chesapeake Bay.
Until a few years ago that was unheard of: The bay just didn’t produce shrimp. It’s too far north.
But fish species are shifting their range as seas warm — four times faster than land species, according to a recent study.
The concerns are for a lot more than shrimp. It’s deep-water finfish as well as surface roamers, species like wahoo, snapper, grouper and cobia. Those are among the most sought after game and seafood fish, and the rules for all of them are under review.
As the waters warm this spring, the near-shore shrimping grounds will open. More of the half-million licensed recreational anglers in South Carolina will crank up boat motors and head out. Commercial boats are out there already. While the pressure on species from overfishing is a long-recognized and long-regulated issue, now there is a new one: How long will this fish even be there?
Anxiety is starting to churn in fishing communities over what will happen to their livelihoods or hobbies. The value to South Carolina of its rich shrimp and finfish waters has been estimated at $44 billion per year for both recreational and commercial fishing combined.
March 18, 2019 — The catch was too good last summer. So many savory red snapper were hooked offshore that federal regulators have shortened the brief season for July by one day.
That may not sound like much, but it’s big stuff.
The tasty seafood favorite fish has come back, 10 years after the stock was so depleted that regulators enforced tight catch and season limits.
A two-weekend season launched last year was cut this year from six days to five, an adjustment based on the previous catch intended to keep enough breeding snapper out there.
But as South Atlantic Fish Management Council members approved the limit this year, they heard the usual question from anglers: How much longer do you need to restrict it at all?
An answer might come as soon as next year.