Monday, January 22, 2007

Commission Questions River Herring Moratorium

The North Carolina Joint Legislative Commission on Seafood and Aquaculture voted last week to ask the Marine Fisheries Commission to end the state-wide river herring moratorium and enact their proposal for a 100,000-pound annual commercial harvest with a 12 fish per day recreational creel limit instead. The moratorium was enacted last year in an effort to save the remaining herring as overfishing was threatening to wipe out NC's stock. Many historic fishing communities were built around the fishery and the moratorium has been hotly debated since it was first proposed a few years back. It is unlikely the MFC will accept the Seafood and Aquaculture Commission's recommendations or their 100,000-pound annual commercial harvest proposal as it exceeds the 90,000 pounds of spawning females biologists estimate now exist. More the the Seafood and Aquaculture Commission's vote is available from the New Bern Sun Journal.

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