CFRG: Shrimp management plan must be changed

Group asking sportsmen to attend meetings, ask for destructive trawling gear to disappear

The Coastal Fisheries Reform Group is making a concerted effort to have destructive shrimp-trawling gear taken out of North Carolina’s inshore waters, and the group is encouraging fishermen to attend N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission meetings and ask the agency to amend its Shrimp Fisheries Management Plan.

“When people address the issue of excessive by-catch of juvenile finfish in otter trawls used to harvest shrimp or in written comments to the (Commission), we recommend they request (it) to reopen and amend the Shrimp FMP,” said Tim Hergenrader, a CFRG official.

Hergenrader said the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, the Commission’s arm that studies coastal fisheries, sets commercial and recreational fishing rules and enforces those regulations, “is recommending the Shrimp FMP only be revised, and revision isn’t adequate.”

The next Commission meetings where shrimp management will be discussed include:

* Sept. 27 at 4 p.m., Northern Advisory Committee Meeting, Vernon G. James Research & Extension Center, 207 Research Station Road, Plymouth.

* Oct. 2 at 6 p.m., Shellfish/Crustacean Meeting, Craven County Cooperative Extension Office, 300 Industrial Drive, New Bern.

* Oct. 2 at 1:30 p.m., Habitat and Water Quality Meeting, N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Washington Regional Office, 943 Washington Square Mall, Washington.

The CFRG asks those who attend to make comments asking for the Shrimp FMP to be amended or to e-mail comments to nancy.fish@ncdenr. E-mailed comments will be added to the public record.

If the Shrimp FMP is revised and not amended, no meaningful changes will occur in the use of otter trawls for the next five years.

“The present Shrimp FMP doesn’t adequately address the by-catch issue; in fact it’s glossed over in the plan,” Hergenrader said. “During the past year, as the recommended Shrimp FMP was developed by the shrimp management team of the DMF, the severity of the by-catch issue was known, but the staff chose to essentially ignore it in their recommendations.”

A recent DMF study of shrimp trawling by-catch showed about 78 percent by weight of all species caught in otter trawls are juvenile finfish — mostly croaker, spot and weakfish (gray trout) — die when shoveled overboard. By noting weights of infantile and juvenile by-catch finfish, CFRG believes approximately 300 million fingerlings of spot, croaker and gray trout have been killed by trawls each of the past five years.

“The scientist (Dr. Allyn Powell) on the (Commission) is trying his best to deflect the by-catch numbers that have been presented previously, but don’t be misled,” Hergenrader said. “The numbers don’t lie.

“We’re suggesting (anglers) implore the MFC to amend the Shrimp FMP and address the issue of by-catch by shrimp trawlers operating in our inshore waters.”

The CFRG also recently sent a letter to all state legislators, asking them to step in and halt the use of destructive trawling gear.