Releases – May 30, 2013
The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries will hold a meeting June 4 to discuss possible management strategies to address issues impacting the state’s commercial summer flounder fishery.
The meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m. at the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources Regional Office, 943 Washington Square Mall, Washington.
At this meeting, the division will seek stakeholder feedback on how to best use the state’s summer flounder quota, including: (1) that trip limits and landing windows best meet fishermen’s market needs; (2) how much quota should be reserved for the fall fishery; and (3) under what circumstances the state should allow North Carolina’s quota to be landed at fish houses in other states.
Summer flounder is a migratory fish that is jointly managed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a federally-authorized board that coordinates fishery management in state waters between the East Coast states, and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, one of eight federal regional councils that manage fisheries in federal waters.
An annual commercial quota is allocated to the states from Maine to North Carolina based on historical landings. North Carolina receives 27.4 percent of the coast-wide commercial quota, the highest percentage of any state.
The ocean flounder trawl fishery accounts for most of North Carolina’s commercial summer flounder landings. The fishing season opens by proclamation, typically with a two- or four-week fishing window during which fishing operations are allowed to harvest a pre-determined poundage of summer flounder. The poundage limit is established with intent to allow the most profitable fishing trips while remaining within the allowable quota. Once the fishing window ends, the division tabulates the landings, and if enough quota remains uncaught, reopens for another window. Overshooting the quota will result in deductions from the state’s quota the next fishing year.
Additionally, a Marine Fisheries Commission rule provides that 20 percent of the state’s commercial summer flounder quota each year is reserved for the fall fishery. The regulation reserving a percentage of the quota for fall fishing was put in place in the early 1990s to ensure the quota would be available for the smaller fishing operations that operated off the coast of North Carolina in the fall.
Since then, the distribution and migration patterns of the fish have shifted much farther north, and the majority of fishing now occurs off New Jersey, New York, and southern New England. While North Carolina’s larger commercial fishing fleet travels to these waters to fish, it is not profitable for the smaller vessels to do so.
As a consequence, North Carolina fishermen have not used the state’s entire commercial fishing quota since 2007. This prompted the commission in February to allow the division to transfer some of the state’s summer flounder quota reserved for fall fishing to the winter fishing season.
Another issue impacting the summer flounder fishery is the shoaling of Oregon Inlet.
For the past several years, North Carolina has allowed vessels to land summer flounder at Virginia fish houses when Oregon Inlet becomes impassible for larger vessels. This requires the state to transfer some of its quota to Virginia.
This saves fishermen the fuel costs involved with steaming farther south and using the better-maintained Beaufort Inlet to land their catch in Morehead City. But North Carolina also loses the revenue generated by these fish.
Eventually, the combination of North Carolina not using all of its summer flounder quota and transferring much of what is used to other states, could result in other states seeking a reallocation of the coast-wide commercial quota.
The meeting will begin with a slideshow presentation outlining the above issues. Afterward, members of the public will be allowed to give their ideas.
For more information, contact Chris Batsavage with the division at (252) 808-8009 or Chris.Batsavage@ncdenr.gov.
Now that the waters have warmed and sea turtles have returned, the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries is urging both commercial and recreational fishermen to take steps to avoid interaction with them.
All species of sea turtles found in North Carolina waters are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, and unpermitted interactions with these animals are illegal. This includes interactions that occur with commercial and recreational fishing gears.
For guidelines on how to avoid sea turtles while fishing and what to do if you catch one, go to: http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf/observer/fishing-guidelines.
Any fisherman that catches a sea turtle should release it unharmed, if possible. If the turtle is injured, lethargic, or comatose, immediately call one of the following numbers:
N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission Sea Turtle Stranding Hotline, (252) 241-7367
N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, (800) 682-2632
For more information, contact the division’s Protected Resources Section Chief Chris Batsavage at (252) 808-8009 or Chris.Batsavage@ncdenr.gov, or Protected Resources Biologist Jacob Boyd at (252) 808-8088 or Jacob.Boyd@ncdenr.gov.
Recreational harvest of snowy grouper in the South Atlantic waters will close, at 12:01 a.m. (local time) May 31, 2013. Recreational harvest will reopen at 12:01 a.m. (local time) on January 1, 2014. The 2013 recreational annual catch limit is 523 fish. The accountability measure for snowy grouper requires that the 2013 fishing season be shortened if the average 2010-2012 recreational landings exceed the annual catch limit. Reports indicate the average 2010-2012 landings exceeded the annual catch limit; therefore, the recreational harvest of snowy grouper should close by May 31, 2013, to protect the snowy grouper resource.
During the closure: (1) recreational harvest or possession of snowy grouper is prohibited; and (2) the closure applies in both state and federal waters for vessels with a valid charter/headboat permit for South Atlantic Snapper-Grouper.
Commercial harvest of snowy grouper for the 2013 fishing season is currently open. Commercial landings are updated on the Southeast Regional Office’s website: http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/sustainable_fisheries/acl_monitoring/commercial_sa/index.html. Another Federal Register notice and Fishery Bulletin will be published if and when the commercial annual catch limit for snowy grouper is projected to be met.
In the coming months, Trip Ticket reports will go paperless for fish dealers who purchase large quantities of finfish from fishermen.
A new N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission rule requires fish dealers that report annual average landings of greater than 50,000 pounds of finfish for three consecutive calendar years to report landings electronically.
It is one of a slate of new Marine Fisheries Commission rules pertaining to various issues that will go into effect June 1 for coastal North Carolina fishing waters.
The electronic reporting rule requires affected dealers to begin paperless reporting within 120 days of receiving notification from the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries. The division plans to send notification letters to affected dealers in June.
Fish dealers have been required to report dockside seafood purchases to the division’s Trip Ticket Program since 1994, but until now electronic reporting was voluntary for all dealers. Transitioning to electronically submitted reports for the state’s largest dealers will allow these files to be processed quicker, giving faster access to data that will allow fisheries managers to make more timely decisions and more efficiently monitor fisheries landings for species managed under a quota.
The division supplies the software program for electronic Trip Ticket filing free of charge. Dealers must use their own computers and internet connections.
The division estimates that the electronic reporting rule change initially will impact about 64 fish dealers in the state; however, 41 of those already choose to file their Trip Tickets electronically. The rule could impact a greater number of fish dealers if they reach the landings threshold in future years.
Once dealers reach the threshold, they will be required to continue to submit electronic Trip Tickets, even if they fall below the 50,000-pound average in later years.
