Releases – March 5, 2015
The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission delayed action on a proposed for-hire logbook, but moved toward temporary management measures for southern flounder at its meeting last week.
The commission voted to delay voting on a proposed rule regarding a for-hire logbook requirement until the August meeting in order to get more stakeholder input before the decision. The delay came after a large group of people from the for-hire industry at the meeting expressed concerns about the for-hire logbook requirement.
The proposed rule would implement a recent change in state law and require charter and guide captains to submit a logbook detailing their for-hire fishing activity for the previous week. Logbook reporting is needed to provide more timely catch information to the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries for management purposes.
The commission also voted to pursue a supplement to the N.C. Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan to reduce the catch of southern flounder by between 25 percent and 60 percent. The division will present options to the commission on ways to do this at its May meeting.
The action followed a report on a draft 2014 N.C. Southern Flounder Stock Assessment. The division did not accept the stock assessment for management purposes after three peer reviewers noted the same concerns the division has. Some of the concerns are about recent studies showing that the North Carolina stock of southern flounder mixes with stocks in other South Atlantic states. These concerns can only be addressed with a regional stock assessment that includes data from other states.
On the other hand, while the stock assessment cannot be used for management, the North Carolina data show declining recruitment, the number of young fish entering into the stock, since the 1990s that is evidence of the need for further management measures. A supplement will allow the commission to adopt temporary management measures without going through the full fishery management plan process.
In other business, the commission voted to:
(1) Give final approval to amendments to the shrimp, bay scallop, and river herring fishery management plans and associated permanent rules.
(2) Send the draft Striped Mullet Fishery Management Plan Amendment 1 forward for rulemaking. The draft amendment proposes increasing the target fishing mortality reference point in recognition of striped mullet’s importance as prey species to many important finfish species; prohibiting runaround, drift or other non-stationary gill nets from blocking more than two-thirds of a waterway or interfering with navigation (similar to the current rule for fixed or stationary gill nets); and removing the gill net attendance requirement from Oct. 1 through Nov. 30 in the Newport River Trawl Nets Prohibited Area while leaving it subject to an attendance requirement from May 1 through Sept. 30.
(3) Request that the chairman convene a Coastal Recreational Fishing License Advisory Committee to advise the existing Marine Fisheries Commission committee on the Coastal Recreational Fishing License grant program. The committee will be comprised of between three and five members, and will include at least one for-hire representative.
(4) Request that the chairman convene a Marine Fisheries Commission Commercial Fishing Resource Committee comprised of members of the commission holding the three commercial seats and delegate authority to that committee for funding decisions related to the N.C. Commercial Fishing Resource Fund.
The commission also voted to adopt the following slate of rules, which could take effect as early as May 1:
(1) Implement a for-hire endorsement on the commercial fishing vessel registration.
(2) Combine two separate ocean pier licenses into one Ocean Fishing Pier License with the same net cost, as provided in statute.
(3) Implement Addendum III to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Fishery Management Plan for American Eel, including a nine-inch minimum size limit, a 25-fish recreational possession limit, and a no-possession requirement for American eels from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31, unless they are taken with baited pots. These regulations have been in place via proclamation since Jan. 1, 2014 to maintain compliance with Addendum III. Additional changes also include a minimum mesh length requirement of one-half-by-one-half-inch mesh for eel pots, allowing for a phase-in period until Jan. 1, 2017.
(4) Update and relocate a rule that provides the Division of Marine Fisheries director’s authority to issue proclamations to resolve user conflicts concerning public trust resources.
(5) Update the name of a canal in Brunswick County.
(6) Remove the permit fee for the Atlantic Ocean Striped Bass Commercial Gear Permit, which is now provided in statute, and eliminate the Nov. 1 deadline to purchase the annual permit.
(7) Correct an error in the inland/coastal waters boundary line in Queens Creek, Onslow County.
(8) Correct grammatical errors and spacing in several rules.
(9) Modify rules pertaining to the Division of Marine Fisheries director’s proclamation authority, for consistency.
Step Up for Soldiers will hold its 10th annual children’s fishing tournament on Saturday, May 16, 2015, Armed Forces Day, at the Fishing Pier in Kure Beach, North Carolina. That’s right, it’s been a decade, and we are planning a very special day to celebrate the occasion. The tournament will start at 7:00 a.m. and run until about 12:00 noon.
As in past years, everything is free. Fishing equipment, bait, breakfast, lunch, snacks, prizes, and gifts are all provided by Step Up and their sponsors. This tournament is open to children of active duty, reserves, and veterans of all five branches of the military.
Registration can be accomplished by going to the Step Up website at www.stepupforsoldiers.org, click on the fishing tournament icon, fill in the form, and submit. You can also contact Jim Verdon, event coordinator, at (570) 971-0553. This is always a great event for children and parents alike.
The Town of Ocean Isle Beach proposes to build and maintain a terminal groin at Shallotte Inlet. The groin will cost taxpayers approximately $46.5 million over the next 30 years, according to the Town’s cost estimates. The groin is supposed to address erosion caused by periodic migration of the inlet’s channel.
The 750-foot rock structure, if built, may protect less than two-dozen oceanfront properties that currently have a tax value of $7.5 million. It may also make other undeveloped parcels of land near the inlet more valuable to develop. Taxpayers will pay for designing, permitting, building, and maintaining the groin—and the Town will become legally and financially responsible if the groin causes damage to either private or publicly owned properties in the future.
The U.S. Corps of Engineers is holding a hearing on the draft Environmental Impact Statement prepared by a consultant paid for by the Town to receive comments on the draft study. Written comments can be sent to Tyler Crumbly (email: Tyler.Crumbley@usace.army.mil; fax: 910-251-4025 or mailed: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington Regulatory Division, 69 Darlington Ave., Wilmington, NC, 28403. With any comments include the file number for the project: SAW-2011-01241).
Terminal groins such as the one proposed for Ocean Isle Beach are designed to anchor the end of an island. This will risk the quality of the public beach for access, can impose navigational hazards, degrade or destroy habitat that is designated as “critical” for fish and wildlife, and influence, in a negative manner, the beach on the other side of the inlet at the west end of Holden Beach.
Typically, a Section 7 review required by the Federal Endangered Species Act and conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is performed in coordination with the development of a draft study of this nature. That required review can have a major influence on which alternative is ultimately selected. Surprisingly, Section 7 review is not included in the draft study. This is a serious flaw in the current draft study.
Equally as serious is the flawed analysis of Alternative #4—Channel realignment. The National Environmental Policy Act mandates that all alternatives be described and analyzed in a comparable manner. However, the draft study shows modeling results for all except for this alternative.
Furthermore, to support its decision to reject this viable alternative, the study relies on a series of faulty arguments, such as it cannot be accurately predicted how long it would take for the positive effects to occur on Ocean Isle Beach should the channel be realigned. However, as the study itself states, different channel position in Shallotte Inlet in the past had positive effects on the east end of the Ocean Isle Beach island. It furthermore states that the inlet today would have positive reactions to the channel realignment.
Other governments have found channel realignment to be more cost-effective than building terminal groins. For example, local governments in Carteret County have opted to not pursue the development of a terminal groin at Bogue Inlet because they understand they will still have to pay for inlet management, and it is not cost-effective to manage the inlet channel as well as build a groin.
The failure of the draft study to fully evaluate inlet management is a major oversight that not only neglects to consider a potentially viable and preferred management alternative, but also underestimates the cost of building a terminal groin since channel management and continued beach renourishment must take place whether or not a terminal groin is constructed.
If you have any questions about the process or the study, contact Mike Giles at (910) 509-2838 or email Mike at mikeg@nccoast.org.
Register now for the North Carolina Oyster Summit, titled Promoting a Healthy Coastal Environment and Economy, on March 10 and 11 at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh.
Hosted by the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, the North Carolina Coastal Federation, and North Carolina Sea Grant, the summit is open to anyone working with or interested in oysters. Elected officials, economic developers, fishers, educators, scientists, resource managers, and shellfish growers involved in establishing public policy, research, monitoring, managing, growing, and harvesting oysters in North Carolina are encouraged to attend.
Since 2003, a diverse group of stakeholders, including North Carolina Sea Grant, has worked collaboratively to link strategies and to develop targeted initiatives related to increasing the state’s oyster population. “This collaboration has resulted in funding increases for oyster-related protection and restoration programs that are about 10 times higher than what they were in 2003,” says North Carolina Sea Grant fisheries specialist Sara Mirabilio.
“Summit dialog will continue this coordination to give rise to more oyster habitat enhanced and restored, increased annual oyster harvests, and a greater number of watershed restoration projects along the coast,” she adds.
Discussion topics will include the economic and environmental aspects of oyster restoration, enhancement, and production; updates to the Oyster Blueprint for Action statewide restoration plan; and prioritization of the scientific challenges associated with restoring oysters in the state.
Additional summit sponsors include The Nature Conservancy, North Carolina Catch, and the Campbell Foundation.
Information about registration can be found at www.ncoysters.org or contact Erin Fleckenstein at erinf@nccoast.org or (252) 473-1607.
