Joe Clem, Former member, North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission

Robert Southerland, Commercial Fisherman, Wilmington, NC

North Carolina is blessed with marine fisheries

North Carolina has both North and South fisheries

NC has 4000 miles of shoreline and 3 million acres of estuarine waters

NC has 7,000 commercial fishermen and 1 million recreational fishermen

Fisheries related expenditures are approximately 1 billion dollars

Since the Marine Fisheries Board was established in 1915, fisheries management has been “anecdotal”, i.e., not based on scientific studies, but on simple observations

Beginning in 1965, fisheries management became science-based

Today, we still lack much vital information concerning various species of commercially or recreationally important fish.

Of 39 species of fish in NC, 30% are stressed or declining. 30% are healthy. For 30%, the status of the fishery is unknown. Lots of data are needed before we can classify these fish populations with unknown status.

The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission sets rules on size and quantity of catch

is concerned with the declining water quality in NC

Is concerned with increased competition between Commercial and Recreational fishermen

Is concerned with the commercial by-catch problem

Commercial fishermen and scientists have experienced a credibility gap. Fishermen purport to know as much or more about fish stocks as the scientists.

In 1994, NC placed a moratorium on entrance into commercial fishing (cannot obtain license)

In 1997, the legislature passed the Fisheries Reform Act. This required the state to establish management plans for maintaining populations of fish caught by commercial and recreational fishermen.

One of the first fishery management plans proposed was for Blue Crab. It has not been accepted yet.

Last year, NC harvested the largest number of blue crabs in recent history. This year, the harvest is likely to be way, way down from last year.

North Carolina has no limit on people entering into commercial fishing. At the federal level, their response is typically to limit the number of fishermen trying to catch fish. For example, the Feds bought out a lot of fishermen in New England when the cod fishery collapsed. They then closed the fishery.

Fisheries management is very difficult because fish migrate along the shore from state to state. The federal role in management is critical.

Examples of Federal coordinative efforts are the Marine Fisheries Councils—South Atlantic Marine Fisheries Council or the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Council.

North Carolina is now working on Red Drum fishery. Red Drum population is stressed and there are now catch limits on the species. Red drum must be caught as by-catch only. The rules are that it cannot be a target fish right now.

Striped bass is now recovering nicely. Its management is a success story.

In 1976, the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) was established to:

• get the foreign fishery fleets out of US waters
• get quotas in place to slow down (shut down) cod and haddock fisheries. We could not control the quantity of fish removed from the ocean.

Net bans have been proposed to reduce commercial excesses, but they are strongly resisted by commercial fishermen. Of course, the recreational fishermen love this idea.

The dolphin population is growing as the number of huge, long, nets are used less and less.

Robert Southerland contends that beach renourishment is depleting nearshore fisheries by removing small organisms in sand that fish feed upon.

Artificial reefs

Research shows that fish aggregate around artificial reefs. Do the artificial reefs result in a population increase or just group the fish together?

In future years, it will be a challenge for the commercial fisherman to survive. Education of people concerning the impact of fishermen on fish stocks is necessary.