From the field

News from around the region

Boat registration fees rise Tuesday

If you need to renew a boat registration or to register a vessel for the first time, you should consider getting it done sooner rather than later.

The fees will rise as of Tuesday, and the online registration and renewal system will be unavailable on Monday and Tuesday because of system maintenance, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission said.

The fees to register vessels will increase from $10 to $15 for one-year registrations and from $25 to $40 for three-year registrations.

The changes apply to new and transfer registrations as well as renewals on existing registrations.

Vessel titles remain $20.

For information, call the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission at (919) 707-0398 or visit www.ncwildlife.org.

Wildlife hearings start next week

Next month, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will hold its annual series of nine public hearings across the state, inviting public comments on 84 proposed changes to hunting, fishing and trapping regulations, the commission said in a news release.

After hearing public comments and reviewing written comments, the 19 commission members will meet in March and vote whether to adopt the proposed rules.

SOME PROPOSALS: Some of the proposals apply only to one county or region. Others apply statewide.

* The buck bag limit reduction from four bucks to two bucks would apply only in the Eastern deer season, creating a uniform bag limit across the state.

* A proposed regulation on the definitions of natural and artificial bait may be of interest to mountain trout anglers. The proposal, if passed, would apply to public mountain trout waters and would define artificial lures as bait that neither contains nor has been treated with any substance that attracts fish by the sense of taste or smell, while natural bait is defined as any living or dead organism or prepared substances designed to attract fish by taste or smell.

* Another proposal would close the striped bass season in the inland and joint fishing waters of the Cape Fear River and its tributaries year-round and would reduce the daily creel limit to two fish and establishing an Oct. 1-April 30 harvest period for the inland and joint fishing waters of the Tar-Pamlico, Neuse and Pungo rivers and other rivers and waters in the Coastal Plain, excluding the Roanoke River/Albemarle Sound striped bass management area and Cape Fear River.

* Another proposal would implement a one-fish creel limit on blue catfish longer than 32 inches in Lake Norman and Badin Lake.

PUBLIC HEARINGS: Each meeting is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

* Tuesday, District 3, commission headquarters, Centennial Campus Center for Wildlife Education, 1721 Varsity Dr., Raleigh. (This meeting will cover only administrative changes in falconry, trapping, controlled hunting preserves, captivity permits and propagation licenses. The hearing covering all proposals will be held Jan. 24 in Louisburg.)

* Jan. 7, District 4, Bladen County Courthouse, 106 East Broad St., Elizabethtown.

* Jan. 9, District 5, Alamance County Courthouse, 212 W. Elm St., Graham.

* Jan. 10, District 6, South Stanly High School, 40488 S. Stanly School Road, Norwood.

* Jan. 15, District 8, Morganton Municipal Auditorium, 401 South College St., Morganton.

* Jan. 16, District 9, Southwest Community College, 447 College Dr., Sylva.

* Jan. 17, District 7, Starmount High School, 2516 Longtown Dr., Boonville.

* Jan. 22, District 1, Swain Auditorium, 101 Court St., Edenton.

* Jan. 23, District 2, Craven County Courthouse, 406 Craven St., New Bern.

* Jan. 24, District 3, Annex Building, District Court Room, 102 S. Main St., Louisburg.

LEARN MORE: For full text of the proposed changes, visit the commission's Web site at www.ncwildlife.org and click on the "Proposed Regulations" link.

SUBMIT COMMENTS: Comments can be submitted in three ways:

* Attending a public hearing.

* Mailing comments to 1701 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C. 27699-1701.

* Visiting www.ncwildlife.org.