Saving Seafood

News for the South Atlantic Region

Fisheries commission OKs shrimping limits

February 17, 2017 — The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission Thursday approved a petition for rulemaking that could ultimately limit how shrimpers operate up and down the North Carolina coast.

At the close of the four-hour hearing at the Hilton Wilmington Riverside, the commission voted to approve the N.C. Wildlife Federation’s petition 5-3, with one member abstaining.

 The board was cleanly split, with each of the three commercial fishing industry representatives voting against the proposal, which could ultimately limit shrimping to three days on the Intracoastal Waterway and other estuaries and four days on the ocean up to 3 miles out, among other proposals.

Federation officials explained earlier in the meeting the proposed rules are designed to protect juvenile fish that depend on the estuaries and near-shore waters to mature from being caught up in shrimp trawlers’ bycatch.

Read the full story at JDNews.com

NORTH CAROLINA: Trawling Restrictions OK’d in 5-3 Vote

February 16, 2017 — The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission approved in a split vote on Thursday a contentious resolution restricting shrimp trawling in state waters.

The vote was 5-3, with Commissioner Joe Shute abstaining. Commissioners Mark Gorges, Chuck Laughridge, Brad Koury, Rick Smith and Mike Wicker voted for the measure. Opposed were Sammy Corbett, the commission’s chairman, Janet Rose and Alison Willis.

All three commissioners voting “no” represent the commercial fishing industry.

Read the full story at Coastal Review Online

North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission to vote on potential new laws

February 16, 2017 — The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission heard public comments Wednesday afternoon on a petition that could add three new laws to the North Carolina fishing code.

The public hearing is part of a two-day meeting for the commission at the Hilton in downtown Wilmington.

More than 100 people showed up to comment for and against the petition, which submitted to the Marine Fisheries Commission back in November. The petition calls for three new laws to be adopted, designating all coastal waterways as special secondary nurseries, establishing clear criteria for the start of shrimping season, and defining the type of gear and when it can be used by shrimpers.

The laws would force shrimpers to go out three miles into the Atlantic before fishing, and would heavily regulate when and how they fish. Similar laws are already in place in South Carolina and Georgia.

Read the full story at Live 5 News

NORTH CAROLINA: Fishermen Recover 4,270 Lost Crab Pots

February 16, 2017 — Commercial fishermen hired by the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s annual Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project collected 4,270 lost and derelict crab pots this year from sounds up and down the state’s coast.

The project was able to hire 72 fishermen during a week and a half timeframe in January to remove the crab pots. Thanks to a $100,000 appropriation from the General Assembly, this was the first time the project had expanded beyond northeastern North Carolina. The program extended across three North Carolina Marine Patrol districts along the state’s coast, from the Virginia state line to the South Carolina line.

Read the full story at CoastalReview.org

North Carolina Marine Fisheries to consider contentious shrimping proposal

February 16, 2017 — For centuries, shrimping has been central to North Carolina’s coastal economy, a practice two conservation groups are asking the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission to curb in order to protect vulnerable juvenile fish that are often collected along with shrimp.

The commission is expected to vote Thursday on the petition, which would limit how, when and where shrimpers could operate. Brought by the N.C. Wildlife Federation and the Southern Environmental Law Center, the petition includes particularly contentious provisions such as limiting the time a trawl can stay in the water to 45 minutes and reducing the days shrimpers can operate to three per week on inner waterways, including the Intracoastal Waterway and the state’s extensive sounds.

“The amount of finfish bycatch in the North Carolina shrimp trawl fishery is unsustainably high, and the negative impact of shrimp trawl bycatch is felt coast wide,” N.C. Wildlife Federation CEO Tim Gestwicki wrote in his petition to the commission.

Read the full story at Star News Online

Mild winter means early start to shad season

February 15, 2017 — That ding, ding, ding, off in the distance is a clanging bell, chiming in the start of the spring fishing season.

To some, that sound rings in the wakening of the redfish up in the marshes. To others, it means early season blowfish and sea mullet from the surf and piers. For the big tackle anglers, it ushers in their first trips to Gulf Stream and the Big Rock for yellowfin tuna, and for us light (tackle) at heart, the visions of streaking hickory shad at our other “Big Rock” on the Roanoke River, on all but the lightest of tackle.

With the so-far mild winter, with near- or above-normal water temperatures, the shad season is off to an early start. Reports are coming from the Neuse, even up to Kinston and beyond, and its spawnable brackish creeks, like the Tar River.

There are already reports of good of catches of American (white) shad, weighing up to four-pounds, and some hickory shad also being landed. Hopefully the Roanoke River will be close behind this year. Of course, water temperatures are the key.

Read the full story at Tideland News

JESS H. HAWKINS III AND ALLYN POWELL: NO: Shrimping hasn’t reduced fish stocks

February 15, 2017 — The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission will be voting on a petition submitted by the North Carolina Wildlife Federation on Feb. 16 in Wilmington that will significantly impact our state’s shrimping industry, negatively affect our seafood restaurants and consumers and eliminate jobs.

The petition claims that shrimping has resulted in declines of populations of at least three types of fish, spot, Atlantic croaker and weakfish, that current fishing practices are unsustainable and proposes many unnecessary rules on shrimp trawling, the main manner that shrimp are caught in the United States. Simply and clearly, the petition lacks scientific evidence that attributes shrimp bycatch to declines in spot, croaker and weakfish.

While shrimpers do catch small fish, called bycatch, there is no proof scientifically that shrimp trawl bycatch has an impact on populations of spot, croaker and weakfish. In fact, independent fisheries experts have found that croaker are not in a state of decline, and that fishing is not negatively affecting weakfish populations. Instead natural factors, not fishing mortality, are responsible for coastwide declines in weakfish.

Read the full opinion piece at The News & Observer

FLORIDA: Senate Bill Targets Shark Fin Trade

Editor’s note: “Shark finning,” or the practice of removing a shark fin at sea and discarding the rest of the shark, is illegal in the United States. All domestic shark fisheries are required to land the entire shark at the dock, and are managed according to sustainable fishery management plans.

February 15, 2017 — A bill filed in the state Senate would crack down on the sale and possession of shark fins and shark tails which are considered a delicacy in parts of Asia.

The measure, filed by Sen. Travis Hutson, would make it a first-degree misdemeanor in Florida to trade or offer for sale shark fins or shark tails. Commercial and recreational fishers found in violation would face a suspension or loss of their licenses or permits.

Read the full story at CBS Miami

Don’t Feed The Dolphins: Scientists Warn

February 13, 2017 — Well-meaning humans who just can’t resist throwing fish overboard to attract wild bottlenose dolphins may be doing the creatures more harm than good. A recent study that draws on data collected in Sarasota Bay in cooperation with Mote Marine Laboratory cast light on the dangers, even when inadvertent and accidental feedings are involved.

“This is the first study that directly links human-related feeding of wild dolphins – intentional or not – with increase risks of injury from human interactions such as boat strikes, entanglement in fishing gear or ingestion of hooks and line,” said Dr. Katie McHugh, staff scientist of the Chicago Zoological Society’s Sarasota Dolphin Research Program. That program is a collaboration with Mote Marine.

Read the full story at the Clearwater Patch

Seismic Testing Evicting Fish from Reef

February 13, 2017 — Fish are being pushed from their homes by seismic testing, a surveying method that uses dynamite, a specialized air gun or a seismic vibrator to develop images of the rock layers below the ground.

Avery Paxton, a marine ecologist Ph.D. student from the University of North Carolina, recently studied the impact seismic testing has on fish who inhabit a reef 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina and found that during seismic surveying, reef-fish abundance declined by 78%.

“What was really interesting is that this decrease occurred during the evening hours, when before the survey the fish were most active on the reef,” Paxton said in an exclusive interview with R&D Magazine. “We don’t know exactly where they went, we assume that they moved from the noisy reef to a nearby quieter reef or perhaps some of the smaller fish went and hid in the holes or crevices.”

Paxton said to conduct the study the research team placed underwater cameras and microphones at the reef and observed the data three days before the test and also during the seismic test.

However, due to a battery issue the study does not include any data after the survey.

Paxton said the majority of research on the impacts of seismic testing centers around marine mammals and not fish.

Read the full story at R&D Magazine