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Fisheries News  Local fishermen are building oyster reefs in Pamlico SoundSeveral 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  Outer Banks Angling: The Fishing Report for Aug. 19-24Another 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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