North Carolina lawmakers have filed a pair of Senate bills that would place a moratorium on any new marine fisheries regulations through January 1, 2037, and roll recreational fishing rules back to where they sat on January 1, 2019.
The legislation, filed by Senators Bobby Hanig and Norman Sanderson, was flagged on the May 7 edition of the Saltwater Report by host Bill Hitchcock as part of a wider news package on the run-up to the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission meeting on May 13 and 14.
Under the bills, the Division of Marine Fisheries and the Marine Fisheries Commission would be blocked from adopting new or expanded restrictions, including any changes to bag limits, size limits, fishing seasons, gear restrictions, reporting requirements or allocations between commercial and recreational fishermen. Temporary emergency actions tied to federal requirements, public safety or fishery collapse concerns would still be allowed.
The proposal follows last year's so-called 'Shrimp Gate' controversy, when a separate proposal to ban shrimp trawling in most North Carolina coastal waters drew sharp pushback from commercial fishing interests. Sponsors say the goal is to pause major regulatory changes while lawmakers digest the long-awaited North Carolina Collaboratory fishery study.
Hitchcock said he had reached out to Senator Sanderson, the primary sponsor, as well as to Glenn Skinner of the North Carolina Fisheries Association and David Sneed of the Coastal Conservation Association of North Carolina for comment. By air time, only Sneed had replied.
"We are encouraged that some members of the General Assembly have recognized the completion of the collaboratory study after investing $1 million and waiting almost five years for its completion," Sneed said. "We are not aware of any hearings or presentations from the collaboratory team at the North Carolina General Assembly. So they are long overdue to hear from Dr Fodrie and his team."
Sneed went on to question whether a blanket moratorium was the right vehicle for the state's responsibilities to its public-trust waters.
"As for how the rest of the legislation would help the state in the fiduciary duty to properly manage our public trust coastal waters, that is probably a good question for the bill sponsors," he said.
Dr Joel Fodrie's team will present the legislative study of coastal marine fisheries - the Collaboratory study - to the Marine Fisheries Commission on May 13 and 14 at the Doubletree in New Bern. Public comment is scheduled for 6pm on Wednesday and 9am Thursday, with a planned vote on Atlantic Bonito management on the docket. The North Carolina Collaboratory was tasked back in November 2021 with assessing the status of the state's coastal and marine fisheries and developing policy recommendations to improve fishery and habitat health.
Hitchcock's wider report from the May 7 broadcast cast the moment as one of the strongest in the calendar year for North Carolina anglers. He flagged a Spanish mackerel push along the coast - one charter captain told him simply, "the Spanish are invading" - and an Atlantic Bonito and Sea Mullet bite that he described from his desk as 'the best fishing of the year.' Backbar Sport Fishing's footage of a wall-to-wall black drum session was, Hitchcock said, some of the most epic drum action he had ever seen.
Outside the regulatory news, Hitchcock used the broadcast to remind viewers that two dolphins were found dead on the beachfront at Masonboro Island Reserve on April 22 and have since been examined by the University of North Carolina Wilmington Marine Mammal Stranding Program. The host noted that dolphins had been found dead in the same area at the same time last year and asked, on air, whether dots needed to be connected.