
Fisheries News
Local fishermen are building oyster reefs in Pamlico Sound
Several local commercial fishermen began distributing 3,000 bushels of
oyster shells in Pamlico Sound behind Ocracoke on Tuesday, Aug. 3, to
build habitat and supplement their income. The N.C. Division of Marine
Fisheries will pay the fishermen $2 a bushel to distribute the shells
as part of the N.C. Coastal Federation’s $5 million federal economic
recovery grant. The grant also included building two large oyster reefs
covering 48 acres in Pamlico Sound. That work was completed in May. The
project has so far created about 135 jobs.....Read
more
State panel will review commercial fishing license issues
This week a state level task force will begin to discuss commercial
fishing license issues that could impact fishermen with very different
fishing habits and histories on Hatteras and Ocracoke. The panel will
undertake the first comprehensive review of commercial fishing licenses
since an exhaustive study resulted in the 1997 Fisheries Reform
Act. ....Read
more
Jones introduces bill to end ‘appalling’ misuse of NOAA fisheries law enforcement fund
On Thursday, July 1, the U.S. Department of Commerce inspector general
released what Congressman Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., called an
“appalling” audit of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s Office of Fisheries Law Enforcement’s (OLE) Asset
Forfeiture Fund (AFF). Jones has introduced a bill in the House
of Representative to end the abuse of the fund. ....Read
more
Marine Fisheries and sea turtle center settle lawsuit
State fisheries officials approved new gill
net restrictions on Thursday, April 13, that settle a lawsuit filed by
the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in
February.
The lawsuit had sought a ban on the use of all gill nets in state
waters, charging that state officials violated the federal Endangered
Species Act by allowing the use of fishing nets that could accidentally
capture sea turtle species given special protection under the act. ....Read
more
State MFC narrowly votes to comply with weakfish limits
The North Carolina Marine Fisheries
Commission decided by the slimmest of margins on Friday morning, May
15, that bucking a regional weakfish management plan wasn’t in the best
interest of the state.
To bring the state into compliance with the Atlantic States Marine
Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) weakfish plan, rules limiting commercial
fishermen to a 100-pound trip limit and recreational fishermen to a
one-fish bag limit went into effect Sunday, May 16. ....Read
more
Logo for local seafood marketing campaign is chosen
The logo for Outer Banks Catch, the local seafood marketing campaign,
was selected Monday, May 10, at a joint meeting of the program’s
executive committee and the Dare County Commission for Working
Watermen. ....Read
more
County’s leaders and working watermen get an update on fisheries issues
Fishermen and county commissioners exchanged information
with state officials about a host of fisheries issues at the Dare
County Commission for Working Watermen meeting April 21.
State officials attending the meeting included North Carolina Rep. Tim
Spear, Division of Marine Fisheries director Louis Daniel, and Wildlife
Resources Commission director Gordon Myers. Chris Dillon, special
projects director for Senator Marc Basnight, also participated. ....Read
more
For-hire fishing boats have a huge economic impact for Dare and other coastal counties
Several years ago, leaders of the North Carolina Watermen United (NCWU)
set out to document the economic value of for-hire charter boats
operating in the state. The report revealed what Capt. Ernal Foster of
Hatteras and the rest of the watermen suspected, that for-hire fishing
along the Carolina coast has a giant economic impact for those
counties. ....Read
more
Recreational Fishing News and
Features
Outer Banks Angling: The Fishing Report for Aug. 19-24
Another summer week has passed, and more of our country’s children have
returned to school. As the summer winds down, Hatteras and Ocracoke
island fishing fans await the fall season. The beach and pier fishing
seem to be slow overall, but the offshore reports remain solid. ..Read
more
Outer Banks Angling: The fishing report for Aug. 12-18
The dog days of summer are not always known for being the prime time
for area fishing. However, the fishing hasn’t been all that bad
in recent days. ..Read
more
Lie detectors put fishermens' tales to the test
When
hundreds of thousands - sometimes millions - of dollars are on the
line, nobody wants to hear the adage about how fishermen tell lies.
So tournament directors across the country use polygraphs to keep things on the up and up.
Yep - lie detector tests for fishermen.
The practice received
national attention in June when the winning boat in the Big Rock Blue
Marlin Tournament was disqualified after it was discovered during a
polygraph that the team's mate did not have a required state license.
An angler on the boat
Citation caught a tournament-record blue marlin that day. The 883-pound
fish was worth a little more than $1.2 million.
But the disqualification took all that away. The outcome now will be settled in court.
By Lee Tolliver in The Virginian-Pilot.
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/08/lie-detectors-put-fishermens-tales-test
UPDATE…It’s a deadlock when parties meet to discuss Big Rock winner
The
fight over winnings in last month’s 2010 Big Rock Blue Marlin
Tournament continues after attorneys and representatives of the
disqualified boat owners and the tournament locked horns and didn’t
budge during an informal meeting this week. ..Read
more
No money will be handed to any 2010 Big Rock Marlin Tournament competitors until a legal dispute about the prizes is resolved.
A lawsuit was filed Monday in Dare County Superior Court by Big Rock
Foundation, Inc. in answer to a July 1 complaint filed by the owners of
the Hatteras-based Citation, the charter boat that was disqualified
from first place winnings of more than $1 million in the June contest
because a mate lacked a fishing license when the fish was caught. ....Read
more
Hatteras-based Citation disqualified in Big Rock; local captains criticize decision
The drama that has played out on fishing boards and social
networking sites across the country for the past three days ended on
Tuesday evening, July 22, when the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament
Board of Directors disqualified the Hatteras-based boat that brought a
record 883-pound fish to the dock on June 14, the tournament’s first
day. The Citation lost about $1.2 million in prize money because the
board determined that a mate on the boat broke tournament rules because
he did not get a $15 North Carolina recreation fishing license until
after the marlin, the largest in the tournament’s 52-year history, was
boated.
Several Hatteras charter captains have criticized the board’s decision. ....Read
more
Big Rock still has no winner -- with almost $1 million in first-prize money at stake
There is still no official winner in last week’s Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament.
Almost $1 million in prize money is riding on whether a mate on the
Hatteras-based Citation, the boat that caught a record-breaking blue
marlin that should have taken the top prize, had a North Carolina
recreational fishing license, which is required by both state and
tournament rules. ....Read
more
Gambler takes top prize money in Hatteras Village Offshore Open
The Hatteras charter boat Gambler, captained by Steve Garrett, took the
top prize money in the 16th annual Hatteras Village Offshore Open
Fishing Tournament. Fishing days were from Wednesday, May 12, through
Saturday, May15. ....Read
more
Hatteras Island teams win in Ocracoke
Invitational Surf-fishing Tournament
The overall winner in the Ocracoke
Invitational Surf-fishing Tournament was the Oceanside Anglers team
from Hatteras Island.
The team caught 67 fish for a total of
187 points. ....Read
more
Outer Banks Angling: A memorable day of fishing in kayaks on the Diamond Shoals
A kayak fishing guide and his buddy, who has never been in a kayak in
the ocean before, take to the shoals off Cape Point and come home with
quite a fish story. ....Read
more
The Outer Banks Angler: Kayak wars
During a recent kayak fishing trip to the Florida
Keys, my group had a gang of young bucks from Louisiana staying beside
us, who were also spending a little time in the Keys looking to catch
fish from kayaks. During one of our conversations, these boys from
Louisiana State University started to tell me about how they were
looking to rack up points for “kayak wars.”
“Do what?” I thought to myself. I had no idea what they
were talking about, but it sounded cool to me and I had to further
investigate. ....Read
more
Outer Banks Angling: No winter blues on the islands; instead it’s a winter blitz….WITH VIDEO
It
has been a relatively slow couple months of fishing on the Banks. In
fact, the past four winters or so haven’t been that great for most
anglers. The weather patterns are our worst enemy. Like the rest of the
U.S., it has been darned cold here and that caused some weird patterns
in fish migration.
However, this year the big story is how the
puppy drum came shooting out of the sound at every inlet on the Banks
and has lead to the single largest rush of puppy drum that even the
oldest islanders can recall. From Pea Island to the south end of
Ocracoke, the bites are epic. ....Read
more
Outer Banks Angling: Marching to the beat of fall’s red drum…WITH VIDEO
The red drum is the North Carolina state fish, and Hatteras Island has
played home to the world-record red drum since 1973, when Elvin Hooper
put a 90-pound drum on the planks of the Rodanthe pier. Eleven years
later, David Duell caught a 94-pound red drum from the Avon surf, and
that record still stands.
September generally marks the downside of spawning for these fish, so
they get ready to make their fall run and begin their exit out of the
Chesapeake Bay and every inlet on the Outer Banks. The inshore waters
become a feeding ground for these awesome fish as they begin to move
and feed on migrating schools of bait and fish. ....Read
more
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