State Delays Requirement For Striped Bass Gear Permit

[NCangler]

MOREHEAD CITY – Commercial fishermen will not need to get a gear permit from the state to fish for striped bass in the ocean this year.

The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission, at the request of the Division of Marine Fisheries, delayed the permit requirement at its meeting in Greenville last week.

Instead, the division will form a committee to discuss other options, including limited entry. The division also will devise a proposal to keep the fishery open to the state’s traditional ocean striped bass fisheries.

The state had planned to institute a commercial permit to harvest ocean striped bass this fall. The permit would have required fishermen to declare which of three gear types – gill nets, beach seines or trawls – they will use.

Though it was originally conceived as a limited entry system, the permit that was approved by the legislature would not have reduced the number of fishermen in the fishery. Division staff believed it would do little to control the fishery without considering a limited entry system.

North Carolina’s commercial striped bass fishery has, for years, been a contentious one with more fishermen competing for a 480,480-pound annual quota. Some fishermen have found ways to get around trip limits and gear allocations causing participation in the fishery to more than quadruple. It has resulted in derby-style fishing and early season closures.

For more information, contact David Taylor at 1-800-682-2631, (252) 726-7021 or David.L.Taylor@ncmail.net.