Recreational fishers notch win in NC’s southern flounder battle
For the first time, North Carolina’s commercial and recreational fishing industries are set to split the southern flounder catch 50-50 this year. That decision was made by the Marine Fisheries Commission last week in a 6-3 vote. After administrative approval, it will take effect in August. For decades, commercial fishers pulled in millions of pounds of southern flounder a year, with harvests peaking in the 1990s. Recreational harvests were always a fraction of that, typically a small one. The harvest dwindled as the species became overfished, and in 2019, the state began enforcing flounder seasons and quotas across both industries. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 12:31
You can’t call the fish that sporties are allowed to take home and eat themselves or give to friends and neighbors for that purpose “recreational” fish. Everything else they are allowed to catch and release — which is everything else — are the ones they are only “playing” with. The recreational allotment are “foodfish”, same as the commercial portion. The difference by statute is that the sporties can’t sell their catch — but they can give it away to whomever they want.
While the feds count the hundreds of these ephemeral thousands (it can only be an estimate) against the hard number of the hundreds of licensed commercial members, the real weight balance should be held against all the millions of consumers the commercial side fishes for. The MSA National Standard #4 (c) on allocations states that they must be “carried out in such manner that no particular individual, corporation, or other entity acquires an excessive share of such privilege.” The “privilege” of catching and releasing fish is unlimited on the recreational side, while the commercial side’s discard rates are strictly monitored and regulated by the ever increasing obligation to carry federally contracted professional observers. But those we are both “privileged” to keep for use as food is what the strictly limited allocations are for.
There is no way that giving half of the total species “pie” to the relatively small number of elites who have the time, wherewithal and expertise to catch foodfish for their families, friend and neighbors, leaving the remainder for the millions of North Carolina residents who have the constitutional proprietary right to have the same species on the family tables.
It is not an equitable situation that the recs “privilege” is to eat local, fresh, wild caught seafood , while only balancing this solely against the hundreds of those who make their livings providing this same “privilege” to the millions who wish to use the fish for for the self-same purpose.