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OUR MISSION STATEMENT
The stated
purpose of CCA is to advise and educate the public on
conservation of marine resources. The objective of CCA is
to conserve, promote and enhance the present and future
availability of these coastal resources for the benefit and
enjoyment of the general public.

| CCA North Carolina Condemns Marine Fisheries Commission's Proclamation on Gill Net Restrictions |
On February 18, 2010 the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) held a special meeting in New Bern devoted to addressing measures intended to govern the interaction of sea turtles with large mesh monofilament gill nets, nets which are primarily designed and used in North Carolina to catch estuarine Southern flounder.
This past July, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) put the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) on notice that illegal taking of sea turtles had been documented in our state coastal waters, and that the DMF must address this problem in all North Carolina coastal fisheries. To protect sea turtles, temporary rules were implemented last summer. These rules included closing the use of gill nets in several estuarine bodies where high numbers of turtles are found.
Backgound
All sea turtles, found in state coastal waters, are designated as either threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). That designation means that except under a very narrowly defined exception to the law, any take (interaction or other harm) of sea turtles is unlawful. That exception, found in Section 10 of the ESA, provides that the federal agency has discretion to issue an Incidental Take Permit (ITP) allowing for the taking of a limited, specified number of individuals of a species incidental to an ongoing, otherwise lawful, human activity, such as fishing. An ITP may only be issued if doing so will not further threaten the protected species.
In a November 30, 2009 letter NMFS informed DMF that in order for some commercial fisheries to continue, additional closures would be necessary. NMFS instructed DMF to come up with an interim plan to reduce the illegal take of sea turtles while a statewide ITP for all coastal waters was sought. The DMF, together with input from their biologists and NMFS crafted a plan (hereinafter, "Plan A"), which was outlined in a January 11, 2010 letter from DMF to Dr. Roy Crabtree, Regional Southeast Administrator for NMFS.
Inadequate Response
The purpose of the February 18, 2010 meeting of the MFC was to review and approve DMF's proposed measures for protecting sea turtles while traditional fisheries were allowed to continue. However, at that meeting the MFC rejected DMF's Plan A out of hand. Instead, the MFC acted to draft its own measures intended - in the Commission's view - to "protect" sea turtles while allowing traditional fisheries to continue. The measures the MFC adopted will virtually guarantee that many more protected sea turtles are harmed or killed in 2010, thereby violating the ESA. For that reason, this plan (hereinafter, "Plan B") will not be acceptable to NMFS and may result in NMFS closing the entire large mesh gill net fishery.
But the shortcomings of Plan B do not end with its inadequate protection of sea turtles. Southern flounder have been overfished since the widespread use of large mesh monofilament gill nets began some two decades ago. Presently, gill nets account for the majority of the state's Southern flounder harvest. Significantly, the MFC did not even discuss—and does not know - whether its Plan B will suffice to stop this overfishing. So it must be that politics, rather than science (or law, since Plan B does not comply with ESA protections) was the basis upon which Plan B was crafted. The MFC sought no input from the Southern flounder Advisory Committee (SFAC), a citizens committee designated to advise the MFC on its Southern flounder fishery management plan (FMP). This sends a twofold message to the SFAC: (1) the SFAC is irrelevant, since the MFC ignored the Committee's hard work to develop a FMP that ends overfishing; and (2) overfishing is not a real concern of the Commission. It is not surprising that three veteran, valuable SFAC members recently resigned in disgust.
But the problems don't even stop there. At the beginning of the MFC meeting last week, Chairman Rob Bizzell reminded MFC Commissioners of the recent Executive Order Number 34, a proclamation from Governor Perdue designed to prevent conflict of interest from affecting decisions by state boards and commissions appointed by the Governor (like the MFC). Executive Order 34 was in large part a response to public fallout from the highly publicized, recent scandals affecting the highest levels of state government. The Executive Order provides that each commissioner "shall act always in the best interest of the public without regard for her or his financial interests," and requires that any person having a financial interest in a matter before the commission must recuse himself from voting on the matter. It certainly appears that the MFC ignored those rules at last week's meeting. The motion to approve Plan B was made by a seafood dealer, Commissioner Bradley Styron of Quality Seafood, who admitted that about one third of his income comes from Southern flounder. The motion was seconded by another seafood dealer, Commissioner Joseph Smith, Jr. of Atlantic Seafood. So much for Executive Order 34, intended to restore public trust in the integrity of state government. |
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| 24 Feb 2010 - 11:39 by CCA North Carolina |
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