NC DMF Releases Statement About Stirped Bass Slaughter Off the Outer Banks

The NC Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) has issued a statement regarding the thousands of striped bass killed and thrown overboard during commercial trawling activity off the Outer Banks in the last few days.

Patricia Smith, the public information officer of the DMF, released the following statement in response to questions for the DMF and its director Dr. Louis Daniel:

"The NC Division of Marine Fisheries is investigating reports of numerous dead striped bass floating in the ocean waters in northern Dare County areas.

The estimates of the numbers of dead fish have ranged from in the hundreds to in the thousands. The division is trying to determine the actual extent and cause of this event. However, the fish appear to be discards from fishing activity.

There was extensive commercial and recreational striped bass fishing in these waters over the holiday weekend. Both commercial and recreational fisheries have had issues with discards of striped bass in the past. However, this is the first time in several years that striped bass have migrated this close to the shore.

The commercial striped bass trawl fishery is scheduled to close at 6 p.m. Thursday. The division will evaluate the effort and landings in this fishery to determine if quota remains and if the fishery should reopen. The division will also consider if alternative management measures could be used to prevent future discard mortality."

The statement was released in response to the article I ran yesterday about the thousands of striped bass slaughtered off of the Outer Banks due to "culling" during the activity of these trawlers. Some recreational charter captains also contacted the DMF about the long wakes of dead stripers.

Charter captains continue to contact me about the miles and miles of dead stripers left in the wake of the striper trawlers.

I will say that the one fortunate thing about striped bass migrating closer to shore this year is that so many witnesses were on hand to document this wasteful practice. Everyone, now including the DMF, admits this goes on every year and yet no one has ever done anything about it.

Now that there is photographic and video evidence of the many legal size stripers that are being killed and culled off the Outer Banks there is at least a chance something will be done eventually.

It does not look like the big striper kill will end until 6 p.m. Thursday at the earliest, but I hope after that the DMF, the Marine Fisheries Commission, and the Coast Guard address this problem in a more direct fashion.

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