Comment period opens, public hearing scheduled for various marine fisheries rules

N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission is accepting public comment on proposed amendments and re-adoption of 56 rules under a state-mandated periodic review schedule.

Most of the rules pertain to sanitation standards for commercial crustacea processing procedures and contain minor updates. Amendments to three of these rules prohibit the repacking of foreign crab meat in North Carolina.

Following recent developments in North Carolina where foreign crab meat was fraudulently marketed and sold as domestic blue crab, the commission began rulemaking to prohibit the repacking of foreign crab meat in the state to prevent future fraud and improve consumer confidence moving forward.

Other changes to rules pertaining to interjurisdictional species remove harvest requirements that are out of date, relying on proclamations instead to respond to interstate and federal management changes. Several rules about general requirements and fishing gears are proposed for re-adoption with no changes.

A public hearing will be held by web conference on Aug. 18 at 6 p.m. The public may join the meeting online; however, those who wish to comment during the hearing must register to speak by noon on the day of the hearing.

Members of the public also may submit written comments through an online form or through the mail to N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission Rules Comments, P.O Box 769, Morehead City, N.C. 28557. Comments must be posted online or be received by the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries by 5 p.m. Oct. 1, 2021.

Links to the public hearing registration form and online comment form, as well as text of the proposed rules and links to join the meeting, can be found on the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission’s Proposed Rules Page.

The proposed rule changes will be presented to the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission for final approval in February 2022 and have an earliest effective date of April 1, 2022.

For questions about the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission rulemaking process, email Catherine Blum, rules coordinator for the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.