North Carolina Sports target commercial fisheries – example #3 in 2022 – 2

Which fisheries are next? It started with the mid-Atlantic Council/ASMFC with scup, black sea bass and fluke, then the Gulf Council with red grouper (not approved yet). And now it’s save the Southern flounder and the shrimp (I don’t know whether they’re to be saved for recreational shrimp fishermen or to be food for gamefish).
The ability to have reallocations on not much more than a bureaucratic whim is now federal law (and don’t forget that Wallop-Breaux dollars will be there in greater amounts as recreational fishing expenditures increase ’cause they got more fish. And don’t forget that the most powerful block in both the Coastal Commissions and the regional Councils  are the state fish heads). This is like the organized recs idea of a perfect world. If a state gets an increased quota state director gets increased Wallop-Breaux $s, gets a bigger budget, bigger bureaucracy, more cars, more boats, more whatever. If the industry can’t get its act together on this issue and discover and develop some unified political clout, it’s gonna be like Casey strikes out again and again and again. And I’m not writing about Mudville, I’m writing about every coastal state.
It’s way past the point when we should have been working on a national strategy.
Tighten your seat belts,
Nils Stolpe
Protestors gather outside Division of Marine Fisheries headquarters Monday to oppose new flounder, shrimp rules

MIKE SHUTAK Mar 7, 2022 Updated 1 hr ago  0
https://www.carolinacoastonline.com/news_times/article_05766928-9e52-11ec-91cf-1baafec212eb.html 
MOREHEAD CITY —A group of more than 30 protestors Monday morning gathered outside the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries in Morehead City to voice their disapproval of recent southern flounder and shrimp management activity.

The Coastal Conservation Association’s North Carolina chapter organized the protest Monday. About 33 participants stood out front of the division building on Arendell Street, holding up signs with messages expressing their displeasure with recent actions the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission took in regards to the management of the southern flounder and shrimp fisheries. Some passing motorists honked their horns in response to the protest.

The association is a recreational fishing nonprofit dedicated to coastal environment conservation. CCA-NC Carteret County chapter president Van Parrish was leading the protest Monday.

Mr. Parrish said he was protesting for “my grandkids and future generations,” and that he and the other protestors sought to get the attention of Gov. Roy Cooper and the DMF so recreational fishermen “will be treated fairly.”

“The DMF and MFC are simply not being fair to the recreational fishermen,” Mr. Parrish said. “The (fisheries) management decisions are almost always skewed towards the commercial fishing industry. Specifically, the gill nets and shrimp trawling are devastating our inland waters where baby fish grow up.”

For-hire and commercial fisherman Allen Jernigan of Holly Ridge was among the protestors Monday. He said he came out because he thinks state fishery managers are ignoring the economic effects of recreational fishing.

“They’re using Band-Aid management and enabling the destructive over-harvest,” Mr. Jernigan said.

Recreational fisherman and former president of the Got Em On live bait club of Carolina Beach Chris Davis was also among the protestors. He said gill nets “kill everything that swims into it.”

Recreational fisherman Susan Beck of Morehead City and Lexington was also at Monday’s protest.

“Recreational fishing brings a lot of revenue to Carteret County,” she said. “I’d rather keep the status quo we had last year (with flounder management).”

The division didn’t oppose Monday’s protest. DMF public information officer Patricia Smith said the division thinks that public input is important to good governance.