Incidental Take Permit (ITP)
What is an Incidental Take Permit?
The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries legally allows the use of certain gill nets in Internal Coastal and Joint Waters under an Endangered Species Act (ESA) Section 10 Incidental Take Permit (ITP) issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
ITPs are issued to non-federal entities when an otherwise lawful activity is reasonably certain to result in the incidental take of threatened and/or endangered species.
Why does North Carolina need an ITP?
North Carolina’s estuarine waters support productive gill-net fisheries which interact with several federally protected sturgeon and sea turtle species.
Federal law requires the state obtain authorization for a limited number of interactions through an ITP.
This permit provides legal protections for both the State of North Carolina and legal fishermen while establishing conservation measures designed to reduce impacts to covered protected species.
Permit Details
Incidental Take Permit (ITP) 27106 was issued to the NCDMF on October 2, 2024. This 10-year permit expires on August 31, 2034.
Each ITP year spans from September 1 through August 31 of the following calendar year, and ITP years are divided into 3-month seasons (fall, winter, spring, and summer).
The ITP applies to all estuarine gill nets EXCEPT the following types:
- Run-around, strike, or drop gill nets: gill nets that are actively fished by either (1) using the boat to run a net around a school of fish, creating a closed circle, or (2) using the boat after the net is set to herd fish into the net without delay, whereby soak time does not exceed 30 minutes from the end of the set to the beginning of the haul.
- Drift gill nets: gill nets that are used to capture fish while being moved along by water currents whereby the net stays attached to the vessel from deployment through retrieval.
Gill nets are further categorized by stretched mesh size:
- Large mesh (≥ 5 inches stretched mesh)
- Small mesh (< 5 inches stretched mesh).
Takes that occur in illegally fished gill nets are not covered by this permit.
The ITP covers the incidental take of the following federally protected species in North Carolina’s estuarine waters:
Sturgeon
- Atlantic Sturgeon
- Shortnose Sturgeon
Sea Turtles
- Loggerhead Sea Turtle
- Green Sea Turtle
- Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle
- Hawksbill Sea Turtle
- Leatherback Sea Turtle
The ITP applies to covered gill nets in estuarine waters (i.e., Internal Joint and Coastal Waters). These areas are further divided into Management Units (MUs). The boundaries of each MU were developed using multiple biological and operational considerations. These include similarities in fishing activity, the spatial distribution of protected species interactions in gill-net fisheries, the geographic scale of fishing areas, and the Division’s capacity to effectively monitor and assess fishing effort within each MU.