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North Carolina Fisheries Group to Prioritize Habitats for Protection

Posted on: Tuesday, 26 July 2005, 12:00 CDT

Jul. 25--MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. -- There are thousands of acres of marine fisheries habitat in North Carolina. Some of it is more important than others. But which ones?

A group of scientists will begin a process next month to help the Marine Fisheries Commission pick which habitat areas stand out. The MFC has been charged through the Coastal Habitat Protection Plan with designating strategic habitat areas so that it and other state environmental commissions can decide how to safeguard them.

"This is a new classification that would provide additional protection for areas that maybe are not adequately protected now," said Anne Deaton, a Coastal Habitat Protection Plan planner for the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.

Strategic habitat areas are specific locations of individual fish habitats or systems of habitats that provide exceptional habitat functions or are particularly at-risk due to imminent threats, vulnerability or rarity, according to a definition already adopted by the MFC, Coastal Resources Commission and Environmental Management Commission.

"It's very similar to the primary nursery area concept," Deaton said.

Primary nursery areas are upstream waters where young finfish, shrimp and crabs stay and feed during their first growing seasons. Fisheries rules prohibit some activities, such as trawling, in these waters. There are other designations, such as the Environmental Management Commission's outstanding resource waters, that provide some water quality protection from development and sewer discharges.

"But some of the other areas don't have that much protection even though they're identified," Deaton said.

For instance, upstream river herring spawning areas might need special attention to ensure the fish can get past dams and through culverts (studies have found the herring will not swim through long culverts) to get there, she said.

Particularly productive oyster beds may need additional protection, too, she said.

A Strategic Habitat Area Advisory Committee to the MFC will hold its first meeting Aug. 10 to begin developing criteria for the classification. The committee is made up of 12 scientists from various universities and government environmental agencies in the state in order to make sure the criteria it recommends to the MFC is biologically based, Deaton said. They are expected to meet for about a year before handing recommendations to the MFC. Once areas are designated, it will be up to the fisheries, coastal resources and environmental management commissions to adopt regulations to manage them.

The committee meeting begins at 10 a.m. Aug. 10 in Room 205 of the Center for Marine Sciences and Technology in Morehead City.

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Source: The Daily News

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