Fisheries commission delays vote on southern flounder

A state commission will delay until November a decision on whether the state should impose new restrictions on southern flounder in an effort to protect the potentially over-fished coastal stock.

Some recreational fishermen and conservationists claim the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission put off the protections under political pressure from a handful of state lawmakers and the state’s commercial fishing interests. Waiting until November means the new limits won’t be in place for this year’s fall season.

The Coastal Conservation Association of North Carolina has written to the commission chairman, Sammy Corbett, saying it is “infuriated” at his decision not to take up the topic until the next scheduled meeting, in mid-November. In August, Corbett said a special meeting would be held in September to consider the restrictions.

“This is not your commission, but a governor-appointed body that includes diverse interests, tasked with the duty to safeguard and manage public fisheries resources for all of the citizens of North Carolina,” Bud Abbott, the organization’s president, wrote.

Corbett has said a meeting couldn’t be scheduled sooner because the nine commissioners couldn’t find a date when they could all be there, even though there were dates when a quorum could be present.

“We needed all nine members there because it’s such an important issue,” Corbett said Tuesday.

Corbett said he also didn’t call the meeting because the state Department of Environmental Quality had not provided additional guidance, as commissioners had hoped.

The commission is made up of members representing commercial and recreational interests, as well as science and at-large representatives. Conservationists and recreational anglers say they suspect the commercial commissioners intentionally made themselves unavailable for a meeting in September.

Data collected last year raised concerns about the southern flounder. Earlier this year, options to protect the fish were presented to the commission, including lowering the limit on the number that could be caught each day, increasing the limits on the size of the fish, and seasonal closures. The commission rejected those options and developed six proposals of its own.

Two of those proposals would have imposed significant restrictions on large-mesh gill nets, which some commissioners said was the only way to effectively reduce the harvest so the stock could replenish. Commercial fishermen responded that fears of depleting the stock are exaggerated.

Rep. Bob Steinburg, a Republican who represents several northeastern counties on or near the coast, told the commission at its August meeting the legislature wouldn’t accept a ban on net fishing. Steinburg and 12 other legislators wrote to state environment Secretary Donald van der Vaart asking him not to allow the commission to impose new limits. Van der Vaart then wrote the commission expressing his agreement that some of the proposals were inappropriate for the temporary rule-making process and should be considered later as part of a five-year review.

This story was originally published October 6, 2015 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Fisheries commission delays vote on southern flounder."