The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries commission has said North Carolina’s commercial fleet is doing a much better job of complying with ASMF regulations concerning weakfish (gray trout), a species heavily overfished along the Atlantic Coast and long in decline in NC.
After NC fisheries regulators implemented strict new AMFC conservation measures, an August 2010 report to the commission said that about 17% of commercial fishing trips were out of compliance with the new laws. The regulations called for a 10 percent by-catch allowance meaning a 100 lb commercial weakfish limit instead of the previous 1,000.
The ASMF was informed at their Aug 1-4 meeting by the Technical Committee that from January 2011 through April 2011 NC had only 5% noncompliant trips (roughly 1,150 lbs of weakfish) versus the previous 17% number.
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