NC seatrout legislation looms

Changes are coming to NC’s seatrout regulations

The North Carolina Dept. of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries accepted public comments on Amendment 1 of the Draft Spotted Seatrout Fishery Management Plan. The Amendment is DMF’s attempt to end overfishing of North Carolina’s seatrout stock.

DMF’s recommendations include:

Statewide, January through February harvest closure of seatrout.

14- to 20-inch slot limit, with allowance for one fish greater than 26 inches.

3-fish bag limit.

Eliminating the for-hire captain and crew allowance.

Extending the fishery closure through June 30 following a cold stun.

Roy Huber tagged a big gator, then immediately changed gears to fish in the Santee Lakes Catfish Club tournament.

DMF is recommending these steps because according to their 2022 Spotted Seatrout Stock Assessment, the stock of seatrout is not overfished, but overfishing is occurring. This means the population is currently large enough to sustain itself, but fishing is removing fish from the population at an unsustainable rate.

Aside from their above recommendations, which are for the recreational sector, DMF is also advising the following changes for the commercial sector:

The same statewide harvest closure from January through February.

No change to the commercial size limit.

A statewide October through December extended weekend commercial harvest closure from 11:59 p.m. Friday to 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

No change in the quota for the Bogue Banks stop net fishery, but to formalize management of the fishery in Amendment 1.

Find out more about the Spotted Seatrout amendment at www.deq.nc.gov/dmf.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply