US Fish & Wildlife Service Confirms NC Commercial Trawlers Discarding Big, Legal Striped Bass
Thousands of these large stripers are being killed and discarded so that trawlers can keep even larger fish.
Some of the dead stripers have begun washing up on the beaches of the Outer Banks as part of a grotesque man made fish kill.
The NC Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) has admitted the actions of the trawlers are "indicative of culling" and suggested that 60 percent of the fish the Marine Patrol collected were under the legal size limit of 28 inches.
However, according to John Ellis of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) federal officials surveyed the beaches of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuse this morning and saw a different scene.
"Twenty one dead striped bass were found," Ellis said. "Three were under the minimum size limit for possession by recreational and commercial fishermen. The majority of the fish were around 30" and the largest was 44."
Despite the fact that the trawlers are clearly culling and killing legal sized stripers and simply discarding them, the striped bass trawl fishery was reopened yesterday and today. The DMF has made the decision to open the fishery twice since the first massive striped bass kill occurred.
The actions of the DMF are expected to be reviewed by the NC Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) at their meeting in Pine Knoll Shores Feb 11.
For more fishing articles see my blog A Dash of Salty and my website Surf and Salt .
Published by Jeffrey Weeks
Jeffrey Weeks is an award-winning NC newspaper columnist who writes about saltwater and freshwater fishing, southern seafood and cooking, hunting, popular entertainment, and sports. View profile
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8 Comments
Post a CommentWhy is the dept reopening the fishery...something smells and its not the dead fish.
These practices and the cowardice of the NC DMF constitute an insult and embarrassment to the people of North Carolina. It's time this state became civilized and follow the other states who have banned trawling. This commercial guys don't care what or how much they kill if they can make a nickel and even after the publicity about the first big kill, they gave the finger to all of us. They make kills like this every single day.
This HAS to stop! If the DMF has authorized a total limit (480,000 pounds), then every fish caught, regardless of size must be kept and counted against the total. What difference does the size make, the trawlers are killing them any how! When the limit is reached, the commercial should be closed. It appears that the regulations as they are now, kill more stripers than they keep which means that instead of 480,000 pounds (if that is the catch limit) the kill is over 1,000,000 pounds half of which is wasted. This is insane!!!! I know that Dr. Daniels is smarter than this, so what is the real reason for the regulations as they now stand? It certainly isn't for the protection of the resource.
Great reporting on this issue.
Imagine that, keep us posted on the stripers, Jeffrey. cheers for the report
excellent ♥ Thanks for sharing
nc dmf is holding the meeting in pine knoll shores in order to decrease turn out
super job