|
Donate your car or boat
|
|
NEWS
| CCA North Carolina Condemns Marine Fisheries Commission's Proclamation on Gill Net Restrictions |
On February 18, 2010 the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) held a special meeting in New Bern devoted to addressing measures intended to govern the interaction of sea turtles with large mesh monofilament gill nets, nets which are primarily designed and used in North Carolina to catch estuarine Southern flounder.
This past July, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) put the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) on notice that illegal taking of sea turtles had been documented in our state coastal waters, and that the DMF must address this problem in all North Carolina coastal fisheries. To protect sea turtles, temporary rules were implemented last summer. These rules included closing the use of gill nets in several estuarine bodies where high numbers of turtles are found.
Backgound
All sea turtles, found in state coastal waters, are designated as either threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). That designation means that except under a very narrowly defined exception to the law, any take (interaction or other harm) of sea turtles is unlawful. That exception, found in Section 10 of the ESA, provides that the federal agency has discretion to issue an Incidental Take Permit (ITP) allowing for the taking of a limited, specified number of individuals of a species incidental to an ongoing, otherwise lawful, human activity, such as fishing. An ITP may only be issued if doing so will not further threaten the protected species.
In a November 30, 2009 letter NMFS informed DMF that in order for some commercial fisheries to continue, additional closures would be necessary. NMFS instructed DMF to come up with an interim plan to reduce the illegal take of sea turtles while a statewide ITP for all coastal waters was sought. The DMF, together with input from their biologists and NMFS crafted a plan (hereinafter, "Plan A"), which was outlined in a January 11, 2010 letter from DMF to Dr. Roy Crabtree, Regional Southeast Administrator for NMFS.
Inadequate Response
The purpose of the February 18, 2010 meeting of the MFC was to review and approve DMF's proposed measures for protecting sea turtles while traditional fisheries were allowed to continue. However, at that meeting the MFC rejected DMF's Plan A out of hand. Instead, the MFC acted to draft its own measures intended - in the Commission's view - to "protect" sea turtles while allowing traditional fisheries to continue. The measures the MFC adopted will virtually guarantee that many more protected sea turtles are harmed or killed in 2010, thereby violating the ESA. For that reason, this plan (hereinafter, "Plan B") will not be acceptable to NMFS and may result in NMFS closing the entire large mesh gill net fishery.
Read More... |
|
| 24 Feb 2010 - 11:39 by CCA North Carolina |
XNews
| |
| ASMFC Takes Wrong Turn on Striped Bass |
Signs pointing to cause for grave concern met with proposal to up commercial harvest
After hearing a litany of significant concerns about the health of the striped bass population presented by its own Technical Committee and by law enforcement personnel, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's (ASMFC) Striped Bass Management Board did the last thing anyone expected at its meeting last week - directing staff to draft an addendum to the management plan which would increase the coastal commercial striped bass harvest.
The stunning turn of events left conservationists shocked at the Board's apparent disregard for strong evidence pointing to numerous problems with the Atlantic striped bass population. Unlike the 1970s when rampant overfishing was the primary cause of the stock's crash, the current picture painted by scientists and officers is all the more bleak because of the wide variety of factors that are negatively impacting striped bass.
"This is just the latest indication that the ASMFC has lost its way as an agency committed to proper resource management," said Charles Witek, chairman of CCA's Atlantic Fisheries Committee. "As bad off as the stock was in the late '70s, the fix was rather straight-forward. What we are looking at today could be much more difficult to reverse. The very last thing anyone needs to discuss during this time of uncertainty is increasing commercial harvest."
Among the information presented to managers was a report on the declining trend in the striped bass Juvenile Abundance Index, a report from law enforcement personnel on suspected "significant and unreported" poaching in the Exclusive Economic Zone, and a report on the potentially devastating impact of Mycobacteriosis in Chesapeake Bay, the primary striped bass spawning ground for the entire Atlantic Coast, where 70 percent of the fish sampled had lesions associated with the disease. In aquaculture, Mycobacteriosis infections are virtually always fatal, and since infected striped bass that are tagged and subsequently recovered never show any signs of recovery, the disease has dire implications for striped bass everywhere on the coast.
Read More... |
|
| 11 Feb 2010 - 11:40 by CCA North Carolina |
XNews
| |
| Cape Fear River Lock & Dam No.1 safety issue to be fixed, fish passage built |
Key Recovery Act projects on the move forward
WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA -Two American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) projects to be built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington District at Lock and Dam No. 1 on the Cape Fear River will improve dam safety and improve conditions for endangered fish species.
"We are delighted to move forward with these projects," said Col. Jefferson M. Ryscavage, Wilmington District commander. "This is a great example of much-needed work made possible because of ARRA funding. Dam safety and environmental enhancement are both key parts of our mission - as is the economic benefit of the jobs supported by the construction."
The construction projects will:
* Fulfill a long-standing environmental mitigation requirement from the Wilmington
Harbor Deepening project.
* Offer employment opportunity in Bladen County, N.C., where unemployment had
reached 12 percent by September 2009.
* Offer opportunities to local quarries to supply materials in a state that has more than 10
percent unemployment.
* Improve dam safety on a structure that is the major water source for southeastern North
Carolina.
Read More... |
|
| 5 Feb 2010 - 15:35 by CCA North Carolina |
XNews
| |
| CCA Mourns Passing of Walter Fondren |
Visionary conservationist helped change the way marine resources are managed
HOUSTON, TX - The conservation community lost one of its true visionaries with the passing of Coastal Conservation Association founder Walter W. Fondren III last week in Houston. A passionate conservationist, avid hunter and skilled fisherman, Fondren was a driving force in the grassroots movement to save red drum and speckled trout populations along the Texas coast in the late 1970s, and was one of the first to fully grasp the potential of anglers as stewards of marine resources with the creation of the Gulf Coast Conservation Association (now CCA).
"Walter was one of those unique individuals who saw the whole chessboard," said Venable Proctor, chairman of CCA. "When he saw a problem with fisheries on the Texas coast, he helped build a national organization to safeguard those resources for generations to come. He grew up hunting and fishing, and fully understood that it is the responsibility of all who enjoy such privileges to leave things better than they found them. He lived his entire life by that principle and infused it into every aspect of CCA."
As chairman of CCA, he helped guide the organization's growth into a national presence with 17 state chapters and almost 100,000 members on all three coasts. He served on the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council as a member from 1982 through 1992; was Council Chairman from 1989 to 1990; and also served on the Billfish Advisory Committee since 1994. He received the Harvey Weil Sportsman/Conservationist Award in 2000 and the prestigious Charles H. Lyles Award in 2001 from the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission in recognition of a lifetime of exceptional contributions on behalf of marine resources.
Read More... |
|
| 2 Feb 2010 - 10:49 by CCA North Carolina |
XNews
| |
|
