Pat McCrory, Governor
Donald R. van der Vaart, Secretary
N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources
Release: Immediate
Contact: Patricia Smith
Date: May 28, 2015
Phone: 252-726-7021
Marine Fisheries Commission moves forward with southern
flounder management
MOREHEAD CITY – The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission moved
forward with southern flounder and sheepshead management at its meeting last
week.
The commission chose six potential management proposals to
include in a draft supplement to the Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan
that the commission will put out for public review.
The six options range
in impacts to different fisheries and gears. They can be found on the N.C.
Division of Marine Fisheries website at http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf/may-2015-briefing-book.
The commission decided to hold a public comment period from
June 10 to July 10 and include a public meeting as well. Details of the comment
period, with the location, date and times of the meeting, will be announced
later.
The commission also chose the following management measures for
sheepshead:
10-inch fork length
minimum size limit (all commercial and recreational fisheries)
10-fish bag limit
(recreational)
10-fish per person
per day limit or per trip limit if multi-day trip (commercial spears and gigs)
300-pound trip limit
(all other commercial gears, except pound nets)
Sheepshead is a highly sought recreational fish and is
caught in a variety of commercial fisheries. Until 2012, sheepshead was managed
under the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council Snapper-Grouper Fishery
Management Plan, and was included in a 20-fish snapper-grouper recreational bag
limit aggregate. When sheepshead was removed from the South Atlantic plan,
management of the fishery was left up to the state.
The new sheepshead regulations will be implemented by a
proclamation later this week, and be effective June 1.
In other business, the commission voted to:
Review the N.C. Spotted Seatrout Fishery Management Plan in
2017 instead of this year, aligning the review with a statutorily required
five-year review schedule. The decision followed a presentation on the latest
stock assessment that showed that the stock is not overfished and overfishing
is not occurring.
Fund up to $10,000 from the Marine Fisheries Commission
Conservation Fund for the James Francesconi Memorial Artificial Reef project
Begin the rulemaking process this summer to adopt an
amendment to the N.C. Striped Mullet Fishery Management Plan later this year.
Proceed with a review of the N.C. Kingfish Fishery
Management Plan as an information update, which means no management changes are
proposed.
Audio of the meeting can be found online at
http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf/may-2015-briefing-book. For more information,
contact Nancy Fish in the Marine Fisheries Commission Office at 252-808-8021 or
Nancy.Fish@ncdenr.gov.
Patricia Smith
Public Information Officer
N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries
3441 Arendell St.
Morehead City, N.C. 28557
(252) 808-8025 (Office)
(252) 342-0642 (Mobile)
Tricia.Smith@ncdenr.gov
Till next time....
Tight lines!
Johnny
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