• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Weakfish Limits Set for Public Hearings

Posted on: Monday, 26 September 2005, 21:00 CDT

By Patricia Smith, The Daily News, Jacksonville, N.C.

Sep. 26--MOREHEAD CITY -- Recreational anglers would be limited to keeping one gray trout per day from North Carolina waters under a proposal being considered by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries will hold two public hearings this week on several options the ASMFC is considering to address a problem with weakfish stocks believed to be caused by natural mortality. The options range from doing nothing to a 50 percent reduction in mortality to an all out moratorium on weakfish fishing along the East Coast.

"What the board has been leaning toward is the 50 percent reduction, which was the recommendation from the science committee," said Louis Daniel with the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.

Under that scenario, North Carolina's choices for regulating recreational catches would be limited to reducing the current 12-fish bag limit and implementing a season closure, Daniel said.

"Essentially what you're looking at is a year-round fishery at one fish or a one-season fishery at four fish," Daniel said.

Commercial harvest would be cut, as well, but the state would have more options of ways to meet the reduction goals, such as with gear restrictions, reduction in fishing days and allowable bycatch reductions, Daniel said.

Catches of weakfish, or gray trout, have been strictly regulated under the ASMFC for several years. Authorities considered weakfish stocks nearly recovered in the late 1990s, but this past summer weakfish was reclassified as overfished again. Scientists do not attribute the population decline to fishing, but to natural mortality, possibly from a lack of food source, increased predation or other environmental conditions.

The North Carolina public hearings are set for Tuesday at the Duke Marine Lab auditorium, 135 Duke Marine Lab Road, Beaufort; and Wednesday at Roanoke Island Festival Park, 1 Festival Park, Manteo. Both meetings begin at 6 p.m.

-----

To see more of The Daily News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jacksonvilledailynews.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, The Daily News, Jacksonville, N.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Daily News

More News in this Category