Thursday, December 15, 2005

Grey Trout Comeback Uncertain

The NC Division of Marine Fisheries has been working to improve grey trout, also known as weakfish, populations in North Carolina through effective fisheries management. While the grey trout had once been severely depleted in our coastal waters, there has been some excellent progress in the past few years. Recent reports however have shown that while waters on the southern NC coast, SC, and GA have experienced population booms, northern NC, VA, and MD stocks may once again be dropping. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's technical committee has provided recommendations to reduce harvest by 50 percent for recreational anglers. This would mean NC anglers would be restricted to only 1 grey trout per day instead of the traditional 7, or a 4 per day bag limit with a shorter season. There have been questions about the validity of the data used in the original report and further investigation is still underway. No regulation changes will be made until the data is carefully examined and the final decision by the NC DMF is expected in May. For more on this story check out this article from the N&O.

Archive Link 1 Comments Tell a Friend