The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) faced strong pushback from commercial and recreational fishermen during its first quarterly meeting of 2025, held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Kitty Hawk on March 12 and 13.
It was the first time since 2018 that the commission convened on the Outer Banks, drawing more than 30 speakers who voiced concerns about regulations, stock assessments, and the future of commercial fishing in the state.
As Island Free Press reported, Joe Romano, a commercial fisherman from Wilmington, spoke at the meeting. “Over-regulation has been the default course, and commercial fishermen have borne the brunt of it. We called it death by a thousand cuts, one ruled after another, reducing access, increasing cost, driving more watermen out of business. For years, it was easy to marginalize commercial fishing because there were so few of us.”
At the heart of the debate were proposed management plans to impose new restrictions on commercial harvests. While recreational anglers will also see reductions, the most significant impacts will fall on the commercial sector. Many speakers questioned the science behind these restrictions, arguing that flawed or incomplete stock assessments were being used to justify sweeping regulatory changes.
“Currently, we have stock assessments that have failed peer review or are not being done at all to support the possible new rules,” said Dare County Commissioner Steve House. Dare County board chair Bob Woodard echoes this concern, stating, “I’m concerned that most of the recommendations placed before this commission do not include a reliable, up-to-date stock assessment of the various species in question.”
The concern about the quality of the data being used to make decisions seems borne out by the information supplied to the commission regarding a proposed rule for False Albacore management.
“There is no baseline stock assessment for false albacore and thus, no biological basis for reducing harvest,” according to the issue paper regarding False Albacore management.
“We are asking ourselves to make regulation based on no data,” Sarah Gardner, marine fisheries commissioner said. “When we go about regulating this fish with no science, it’s going back to something that’s become really problematic. We’ve heard it over and over again today in this room that people are mistrusting the science, and now we’re going to say, trust us with no science. And that scares me.”
A particularly controversial vote involved a place to reduce commercial southern flounder landings while reallocating part of the stock to recreational fishing. The motion did pass on a five to four vote, although the management plan will now go to an advisory committee for an implementation plan.
Erwin Bateman, owner of Sugar Creek Restaurant in Nags Head, emphasized the real-world impact of these changes on consumers and local businesses. “Last year, in the month of July, I sold 15,000 people food in my restaurant. Do you think somebody from New Jersey, somebody from Illinois, somebody from Canada…they want to eat something that came from China? No, they want to eat fish that came from [Etheridge Seafood]. They want the freshest possible thing they can get.”
A Hatteras resident and longtime commercial and charter boat captain, Ernie Foster, condemned the reallocation of flounder to recreational fishing, particularly in light of the date. While commercial landings exceeded their quota by just 5700 pounds (1.6 percent over the limit), recreational anglers overshot their allocation by more than 14,000 pounds. “The commercial sector is doing exactly what they’re supposed to do,” Foster said. “What I know is that they’re taking this away from people who need it to survive.”
As the meeting concluded, the underlying question remained: who should have access to North Carolina’s fishery resources? “Is this a public resource?” Foster asked. “Should the consumers have access to that resource? If you live in Raleigh and you have two choices- spend thousands of dollars on a boat and go catch your own, or go to the fish market- what should the answer be?”
With ongoing debates continuing over quotes, regulations, and data reliability, the divide between commercial and recreational fishermen in North Carolina’s fisheries remains deep.
Here is the rule that the MFC voted to adopt:
15A NCAC 03M .0523 FALSE ALBACORE
(a) If the level of landings of false albacore in a calendar year exceeds 200 percent of the five-year average of North Carolina recreational and commercial landings combined from 2018-2022, the Fisheries Director shall issue a proclamation as set forth in Paragraph (b) of this Rule.
(b) In accordance with Paragraph (a) of this Rule and after prior consent of the Marine Fisheries Commission, the Fisheries Director shall, by proclamation, impose the following requirements on the taking of false albacore:
(1) for recreational purposes, specify a bag limit not to exceed 10 fish per person per day, not to exceed 30 fish per vessel per day; and
(2) for a commercial fishing operation, specify a trip limit not to exceed 3,500 pounds in any one day or trip, whichever is more restrictive.
(c) A proclamation issued in accordance with Paragraphs (a) and (b) of this Rule shall become effective January 1 of the year following the year when the determination is made that a proclamation shall be issued. The proclamation shall expire when the level of landings falls below the landings level in Paragraph (a) of this Rule in a subsequent calendar year and after prior consent of the Marine Fisheries Commission.
As part of the normal process, this rule will go before the NC Rules Review Commission on April 24.