Saving Seafood

NORTH CAROLINA: Commercial Flounder Season Announced

June 16, 2020 — The open and close dates for 2020 commercial flounder seasons in North Carolina were announced Monday by Division of Marine Fisheries Director Steve Murphey.

The season for the Northern Management Area, which includes Albemarle, Roanoke, and Croatan sounds and their tributaries, will open Sept. 15 and close Oct. 6

The season for the Central Management Area, which includes Pamlico Sound, and the Tar, Pamlico, Neuse and Pungo rivers and their tributaries, will open Oct. 1 and close Oct. 19.

The season for the Southern Management Area, which includes Core Sound and all internal coastal waters south of Core Sound to the state line, will open Oct. 1 and close Nov. 2.

The minimum size limit will remain at 15 inches total length. For specific management area lines, coordinates, maps and gear restrictions, see Proclamation FF-25-2020.

Read the full story at Coastal Review Online

North Carolina fisheries commission forces a gillnet ban

March 19, 2019 — North Carolina’s commercial fishermen are bracing for a fight over actions taken by the state’s Marine Fisheries Commissioners that forced a ban on the use of all gillnets in the Neuse and Pamlico Rivers.

The controversial action was a follow-up to a February meeting where a no-possession limit of striped bass was put into place, which is essentially a closed-season for both commercial and recreational fishermen in Central Southern Management Area of the state. At the same meeting, the commission requested that Department of Marine Fisheries Director Steve Murphey issue an additional proclamation restricting the use of all gillnets in the Neuse and Pamlico Rivers. Murphey chose not to issue the proclamation.

In a March 4 letter to the commission, Murphey wrote that he carefully considered the issue but concluded that scientific data does not support the management measure.

“While I respect the concerns of both the public and the MFC, after careful consideration I have concluded that such a measure is not supported by the scientific data that support gill nets as the primary or even the most significant source of discard mortality,” he wrote.

Gill nets are not the primary or even the most significant source of discard mortality in the Central Southern Management Area striped bass fishery, according to the department.

“This letter and Supplement A acknowledge discards in both the recreational and commercial industry, but it also points out that gill net restrictions already in place have resulted in significant reductions in striped bass discards and that recreational discards are increasing in recent years,” said Murphey.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Could N.C. become the ‘Napa Valley of oysters?’

May 29, 2018 — MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. — Steve Murphey pointed at an oyster shell resting atop the hill of granite stones.

“See, it worked,” quipped Murphey, the director of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.

The pile of granite Murphey was standing beside last week was one of several at the Port of Morehead City, days away from being spread across the Pamlico Sound near South River where it will become part of the Swan Island Oyster Sanctuary. The project — a joint endeavor of the N.C. Coastal Federation, N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Restoration Center — is slated to reach 25 acres by the end of the summer, with as many as 15 more acres planned for next year depending on funding.

An acre of restored reef can support conservatively, a million oysters, biologists said. Some studies have recorded as many as five or six million on an acre, living on top of each other.

Oysters growing on the sanctuary cannot be harvested, giving them a chance to reproduce safely before moving on to other nearby reef sites where they can be captured.

“We’re giving them a good chunk of area to be able to stay and not be harvested and just give them time,” said Kaitlin DeAeth, a Division of Marine Fisheries biologist.

In recent years, shellfish have emerged as a topic on which environmental groups and the legislature can find common ground.