Topics Related to Marine Fisheries

Three advisory committees of the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission will meet this month to discuss adaptive management in the blue crab fishery. The meetings will be held in person and livestreamed on YouTube.

The advisory committees will receive a short presentation on the status of the blue crab stock and will then have a collaborative discussion with Division of Marine Fisheries staff about options available under the Adaptive Management framework adopted in Amendment 3 to the Blue Crab Fishery Management Plan (FMP).

The N.C. Coastal Habitat Protection Plan Steering Committee will meet from 10 a.m. to noon on Monday, Sept. 23 at the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Washington Regional Office, 943 Washington Square Mall, Highway 17, Washington, NC 27889 and by web conference.

The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission Commercial Resource Fund Committee and the Funding Committee for the N.C. Commercial Fishing Resource Fund will meet jointly on Sept. 12 at 11 a.m. The meeting will be held at the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Washington Regional Office, 943 Washington Square Mall, Washington.

Members of the public may attend the meeting in person or by web conference. A meeting agenda and WebEx link can be found here.

The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) wants to look at ways to allow more recreational access to flounder fishing in the future.

At its business meeting last week, the MFC asked the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) Director to seek permission from the Department of Environmental Quality Secretary to move up the schedule to review the Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan beginning this year. The intent is to allow for more recreational access while maintaining the rebuilding requirements of Amendment 3 to the plan.