NC DMF Appears to Be Covering Up Striper Trawlers' Massive Fish Kill

The NC Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) appears to be trying to cover-up the activities of commercial fishing trawlers who have been killing thousands of striped bass off the Outer Banks in "culling" operations by simultaneously changing the rules for trawlers and at the same time blaming the majority of the carnage on a single incident of an "overloaded net."

The DMF on Thursday changed the laws which limited striped bass trawlers to 50 fish in response to public pressure and media reports detailing trawlers throwing thousands of striped bass, many of legal size in the 15 to 20 pound range, back into the ocean dead in order to keep larger fish.

"The division will replace the current 50-fish-per-day commercial trip limit, which has been in place for 15 years, with a 2,000-pound-per-day trip limit," the DMF said in a press release. "To avoid the need to throw back dead fish, commercial fishermen will be allowed to transfer trip limits to other fishing vessels that hold a striped bass ocean fishing permit for the commercial trawl fishery. The transfers must be made in the ocean."

The DMF also made clear its opinion of the ethics of culling, which it called "high-grading," although amazingly it said despite feeling the need to change the 15-year old law it had been unable to confirm that culling had even been happening.

"Staff with the division is still investigating the incident but has been unable to confirm reports that commercial trawl fishermen were high-grading," said the DMF. "High-grading occurs when a fisherman discards a previously-caught, legal-sized fish in order to keep a larger fish within the daily possession limit. While high-grading is not illegal, it is not an ethical fishing practice and the division does not condone it."

Even more amazing was the fact that all of this was sent out in a press release clearly designed to take the pressure off of commercial charter fishermen by blaming the majority of the fish kill on a single incident of an overloaded net.

The press release was titled "Overloaded Fishing Net Causes Striped Bass Spill." It claimed:

"An overloaded fishing net prompted fishermen on a commercial trawler to release thousands of striped bass they caught Saturday off of Bodie Island. After towing through a school of striped bass, fishermen on the commercial trawler Jamie Lynn found the net was so full it was too heavy to bring onto the boat. In order to retrieve the net, the fishermen had to open it and release the fish, the boat captain said.

The boat captain estimated 3,000 to 4,000 fish were released from the net. Many recreational and commercial fishermen picked up the discarded fish. When Marine Patrol officers arrived on the scene, there were approximately 250 dead fish.The incident occurred Saturday afternoon."

However, evidence of the mass kill (that's kill, not spill) of stripers during the days surrounding the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend is overwhelming and one overloaded net on Jan 15 could not possibly be the main reason for the extended fish kill.

Fishermen took this video on the next day, Sunday Jan 16, off Kitty Hawk near the Wright Brothers Memorial which clearly shows the same events occurring behind other trawlers.

In addition I have personally spoken to numerous charter captains and recreational anglers who were on the water from Jan 15 to Jan 17 and documented their comments about trawlers tossing overboard massive fields of dead, legal-sized stripers.

My report is but one of the many flooding the internet, local media, and fishing message boards documenting these activities over the span of several days. I have been copied on numerous emails from fishermen sending the DMF documentation of these events.

The striper trawling is currently shut down but the DMF intends to re-open it for three days beginning Monday under the new rules. The DMF previously said it would consider not reopening the trawling season due to the fish kills, but has obviously been influenced by something or someone to change its mind. The NC Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) will review the new regulations at its Feb 11 meeting in Pine Knoll Shores.

Meanwhile it appears that not only will the commercial trawlers not be held legally responsible for their actions in this mass slaughter of striped bass, but that the NC state government is doing everything it can to cover these events up and make sure the commercial trawlers also escape any public blame.

For more fishing articles see my blog A Dash of Salty and my website Surf and Salt.