Saving Seafood

NOAA slowdowns and new science delay the usual ‘scramble’ to set fishing catch limits

March 26, 2025 — The start of this year’s commercial fishing season could be a bust for fishermen who catch groundfish species like cod, haddock and flounder.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has yet to approve new catch limits for the season slated to open May 1. People in the fishing industry said the annual process has been delayed by changes to the science used to measure cod populations, and the Trump administration’s cuts to the agency.

Scallop fishery regulations also won’t be finalized by the season’s start on April 1. But since there aren’t new regulatory strategies under consideration like with cod, there are default catch limits in place for scallops. Scallopers are facing just 10 fewer fishing days at the start of the season.

Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney representing the Sustainable Scalloping Fund, said this “doesn’t have much of an impact” on the fishery. He’s expecting new limits to be approved within a week of the start of the season.

Scalloper Eric Hansen of New Bedford said he’s cautiously optimistic about an approval coming soon. He remembers a similar slowdown when the Biden administration took over four years ago.

“ If history repeats itself, it won’t be catastrophic,” he said. “And that’s a big if.”

Read the full article at wbur

NORTH CAROLINA: Comment period open for state flounder management plan

February 28, 2025 — The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries is taking public comments beginning Saturday through to the end of March on a plan that would allow more recreational fishing access for southern flounder.

The public may also provide feedback on potential management strategies and priorities for Amendment 5 to the N.C. Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan at one of four scoping meetings scheduled for March.

Amendment 5, which is in development, will address a motion the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission made last August “to allow for more recreational fishing access while maintaining the rebuilding requirements” of Amendment 3, according to a N.C. Department of Environmental Quality release.

Read the full article at CostalReview.org

Flounder fishery dispute grows as August meeting approaches

August 15, 2024 — The flounder conflict continues into next week’s North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) meeting, which will be held in Raleigh from Aug. 21-23. The bone of contention is between the MFC and the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission (WRC) about this year’s recreational flounder season.

The only agenda items for the meeting mention flounder, including a report from the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries staff on the Southern Flounder Stock Assessment Update and the 2023 Southern Flounder landings. According to Island Free Press, the report is expected to be the basis for deciding how much quota is available for a commercial season in the sounds and coastal rivers that has previously taken place in September and October.

The MFC chairman, Rob Bizzell, insists that his panel will not open the flounder fishery to recreational anglers this year. However, a vote last month by the NC WRC would allow recreational fishing, which would be a hook-and-line season for Sept. 1, 2, 7, and 8 with a daily limit of one fish per angler and a minimum size of 15 inches within the waters that fall under their jurisdiction. The areas would include joint waters that the MFC also oversees, creating controversy over whether or not to open the recreational season.

WRC chair Monty Crump has been trading letters with Bizzell to hold an emergency meeting to reconsider how southern flounder is allocated between commercial and recreational sectors to allow the recreational season in all waters. Bizzell said in letters, “MFC will be sticking to its plan adopted this spring to not allow a recreational season for flounder this year.” He also stated that fishermen who try to keep flounder caught in or transported through both coastal and joint waters will be subject to enforcement efforts of the NC Marine Patrol.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NORTH CAROLINA: Local rep, fishermen call on state to improve fishery management after flounder season cancellation

August 12, 2024 — Recreational fishermen have been barred from catching the state’s most valued finifish, the Southern flounder, this year because they exceeded last year’s quota. But anglers say this season’s cancellation reflects a larger management issue at the state level.

The Division of Marine Fisheries, part of North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality, announced the cancellation of the season, set for two weeks in September, on May 23.

Calculations from the 2023 season indicate the recreational catch of Southern flounder exceeded the quota allowed under the stock rebuilding plan set by the state in 2022.

Over two decades ago, state researchers determined Southern flounder were overfished and overfishing was occurring. The two terms carry different meanings: overfished is when a population is below a level needed to sustain itself, and overfishing means they are actively being caught at an unsustainable rate.

Limits were put on recreational and commercial anglers with the goal of rebuilding the flounder population. Per the current management plan, commercial fishermen are allocated 70% of the stock while recreational anglers get 30%, based on the proportion of flounder historically caught by commercial and recreational fishermen. However, the goal is for the groups to reach parity in 2026.

Read the full article at NJ Spotlight News

NORTH CAROLINA: State WRC sets recreational flounder season separate from state fisheries division season

August 28, 2023 — The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will allow a recreational summer flounder season in inland waters in September, creating consternation at the N.C. Fisheries Association, a private trade and lobbying group for commercial fishermen who have been mostly cut off in recent years from a species that once was one of their primary money-makers.

“In the middle of trying to rebuild the southern flounder population in our state, the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission has decided this year to have a separate recreational season outside of the recreational season set by the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF),” Thomas Newman of the association said in an email Monday.

“Not only do these season dates not align (the WRC season runs September 1-14 and the DMF season runs September 15-29) but the WRC has set a four-flounder bag limit (per day) during their season while the DMF bag limit is only one flounder.” 

Glen Skinner, executive director of the Morehead City-based association, said Monday the separate seasons for coastal waters and jointly managed inland waters will cause confusion for the recreational fishermen, who will have different rules to contend with by crossing an “imaginary line” that delineates waters where the fisheries division has sole authority (coastal waters) and waters where saltwater and freshwater fish are jointly managed by the two agencies.

“You could catch fish on one side of the line, and it would be legal, cross that line and it would be illegal, then cross the line again and it would be legal again,” he said. “It makes no sense.”

In addition, he said, it goes against the state’s plan to rebuild the stock by allowing a higher daily catch.

It’s long been an important fishery, and everyone – both state agencies and commercial and recreational fishermen – want the overfished stock rebuilt.

In 1994, the commercial southern flounder season was worth more than $8 million, with a catch of 4.8 million pounds, but it’s been steadily declining since then. In 2021, the last year for which statistics are available on the fisheries division website, it was worth only $1.4 million for a catch of about 480,000 pounds.

The state marine fisheries commission, policy-making arm of the fisheries division, addressed the issue briefly during its quarterly meeting Friday in New Bern. Phillip Reynolds, legal counsel for the commission, said, “There is no scientific basis showing that (the WRC season and bag limit) is an appropriate measure.”

The fisheries commission adopted the Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan Amendment 3 during its May 2022 business meeting. The goal of Amendment 3 is to achieve a self-sustaining population for the overfished stock that provides a sustainable harvest. Amendment 3 maintained a 72% reduction across the fisheries and carried forward several management measures, including minimum size, from Amendment 2. 

Read the full article at the NEWS-TIMES

North Carolina adjusts flounder seasons to rebuild stocks

June 23, 2021 — The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries announced Wednesday it has adjusted the recreational and commercial flounder seasons for 2021 to ensure a sustainable fishery.

In 2019 the Division of Marine Fisheries recommended, and the Marine Fisheries Commission approved, substantial harvest reductions in the flounder fishery to rebuild the southern flounder stock. The season adjustments are necessary to meet that goal, the division said.

The recreational flounder season will open Sept. 1 and close Sept. 14 in internal and ocean waters of North Carolina. The minimum size limit will remain at 15 inches total length, and the creel limit will remain at four fish per person per day during the open recreational season.

Since all species of flounder are managed under the same recreational regulations, the recreational season applies to all recreational flounder fishing.

Read the full story at Coastal Review Online

Marine Fisheries Commission amends sector allocations for southern flounder plan amendment

April 7, 2021 — The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission voted to amend the previously adopted sector allocations for Amendment 3 to the Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan to gradually equalize allocations between the commercial and recreational fisheries.

The commission voted to change the allocation to 70% commercial and 30% recreational in 2021 and 2022, 60% commercial and 40% recreational in 2023 and 50% commercial and 50% recreational in 2024, states a media release from Division of Marine Fisheries.

In February, the commission had selected sector harvest allocations of 70% commercial and 30% recreational for the duration of Amendment 3. That allocation was similar to the harvest landed by each sector in 2017, the terminal year of the stock assessment on which draft management measures in Amendment 3 are based.

Read the full story at The Coastland Times

NORTH CAROLINA: Commercial, recreational fishermen at odds over proposed limits to southern flounder catch

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.”

Read the full story at WRAL

North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission to meet by web conference March 31

March 25, 2021 — The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission will meet by web conference on March 31 beginning at 1 p.m.

The public may listen to the meeting by phone or listen and view presentations online.

For to the link and phone number to join the meeting go to the Marine Fisheries Commission Meeting webpage.

Members of the public may submit written comments to the commission in two ways:

  1. Online Comments – Public comments will be accepted until noon on Monday, March 29, through an online form available here.
  2. Mailed Comments – Written comments may be mailed to March 31, 2021 Marine Fisheries Commission Meeting Comments, P.O Box 769, Morehead City, N.C. 28557. Comments must be received by the division by noon on Monday, March 29.

Public comment will not be accepted during the meeting or through email.

Following the meeting, an audio recording will be posted online.

Read the full story at the Island Free Press

NORTH CAROLINA: Proposal to regulate coastal fishing draws strong differences of opinion

October 17, 2019 — A proposed coastal fishing regulation designed to protect species is drawing sharp differences of opinion from some of those affected.

Some think the measure is necessary to prevent continued loss of important fish species.

Others think the measure won’t work as intended and could prove catastrophic for coastal fishing industries.

Tom Roller is a professional fishing guide in Beaufort who brings his clients to sounds, bays, inlets and creeks to cast for red drum, speckled sea trout, bluefish and Spanish mackerel.

But his bread and butter, he said, is Southern flounder.

“They are extremely important to my business, but we don’t catch Southerns like we used to because they aren’t here anymore,” he said. “They are an example of how to overfish something and not do anything.”

The recreational Southern flounder fishery is closed for the rest of the year since the catch exceeded its target defined by the Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan.

Commercial landings of Southern flounder, according to the N.C. Wildlife Federation, have declined 88 percent over the past two decades. A landing is the amount of fish harvested at sea and brought to land.

Read the full story at the Carolina Public Press