NCFA Seafood Lobby Day and Legislative Reception
Come help support our seafood industry
On May 12™, the North Carolina Fisheries Association has scheduled a Seafood Lobby Day in Raleigh, to be held at the North Carolina General Assembly, beginning at 9am.
and;
A Legislative Reception, that evening from 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm, at Mala Pata Restaurant, 2431 Crabtree Boulevard, Raleigh, NC.
The purpose of this event is to educate our elected officials about North Carolina’s seafood industry and the challenges we are facing, build relationships with our representatives, and propose solutions.
The NCFA Board has identified 3 legislative priorities we feel are a good starting point for helping preserve our state’s Commercial, For-Hire, and Recreational fishing industries and conserve the resources we all rely on.
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Reinstate the Joint Legislative Commission on Seafood and Aquaculture
Justification – We need a formal process for discussing fisheries issues, educating lawmakers, and reviewing current and proposed laws, rules, and fishery management plans in Raleigh, outside of the current NC DMF/MFC process.
Fisheries issues are complicated and often dominated by uncertainty. It is this uncertainty that allows misinformation and fear mongering to drive management decisions, rather than data.
Reinstating the Joint Legislative Commission on Seafood and Aquaculture will create a process where all sides can come together and discuss fisheries issues, with transparency and accountability, helping lawmakers separate fact from fiction and make educated decisions
A fair and transparent legislative process, if done right, will benefit all, not just a select few.
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Change North Carolina’s 2-and 10-year overfishing statutes
Justification – North Carolina law currently requires the Marine Fisheries Commission to adopt management measures that end overfishing within 2 years and have at least a 50% probability of achieving a sustainable harvest within 10 years.
No other coastal state has these requirements, making North Carolina the most restrictive state in the nation when it comes to managing our coastal fisheries.
Want to know why you can’t fish for flounder but citizens in other states can, or why speckled trout regulations were made more restrictive when the population was at an all-time high?
Our 2 and 10 Statutes are why!
Help us put an end to the 2 and 10!
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Enact Seafood Labeling Laws
Justification– Surveys have shown that seafood consumers prefer local, domestically produced, seafood over foreign imports.
Unfortunately, it’s often hard for consumers to determine where their seafood comes from. While grocery stores are required to label the country of origin for seafood; restaurants in North Carolina are not.
Recent testing at some restaurants, claiming to be serving domestic shrimp in North Carolina, showed that between 64% and 77% of the restaurants tested were actually selling imported products.
Restaurants have the right to serve any product they choose but using domestic seafoods reputation as a healthy and sustainable source of protein, to sell an interior imported product, is misleading and harmful to North Carolina fishermen.
Consumers deserve to know where their seafood comes from so they can make educated and healthy choices!
We hope all who care about North Carolina’s Seafood industry will join us on Lobby Day and support these legislative priorities.
See you in Raleigh!
Vote on Bonito Management – MFC Meeting This Week
The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) meets this week (May 13-14) at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in New Bern, NC. The meeting starts at 1:00pm on Wednesday, May 13th and at 9:00am on Thursday, May 14th.
There will be two in person public comment opportunities. The first opportunity is Wednesday at 6:00pm and the second will be Thursday morning at 9:00am. There is also an option to send in written comments, link below.
The MFC is scheduled to vote on notice of text for rulemaking for Atlantic bonito management at this meeting. While much of the discussion over the past year centered around a possible 5-fish recreational bag limit, the proposed rule goes much further by creating broad proclamation authority to regulate time, area, gear, season, size, and quantity — including commercial trip limits.
This comes despite the Division’s own issue paper stating that Atlantic bonito stock status is unknown, there is no stock assessment, MRIP estimates are often imprecise, and current trends do not indicate the need for immediate management.
NCFA does not support rulemaking for Atlantic bonito. However, we do support continued monitoring and we also believe additional biological information should come before expanding management authority, especially for a short, seasonal fishery that is highly visible on social media but poorly understood scientifically.
Updates will also be given on: Red Snapper Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP), Incidental Take Permit (ITP), Red Drum FMP, Southern Flounder FMP, Kingfishes FMP, and the Blue Crab Stock Assessment.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please reach out.
Thomas Newman
Fisheries Liaison
