REBUILD SOUTHERN FLOUNDER STOCKS.

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View NCGA Bill Details2021
House Bill 894 (Public) Filed Wednesday, May 5, 2021
AN ACT TO REQUIRE CERTAIN MEASURES FOR THE SOUTHERN FLOUNDER FISHERY TO MEET STATUTORY DEADLINES FOR ACHIEVING A SUSTAINABLE HARVEST.
Intro. by Yarborough, Saine, Bell, Cunningham.

Status: Ref to the Com on Marine Resources and Aqua Culture, if favorable, Appropriations, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House (House action) (May 6 2021)
H 894

Bill Summaries:

  • Summary date: May 7 2021 - View Summary

    Includes whereas clauses. Requires the Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission) to revise the Fishery Management Plan for Southern Flounder adopted by the Commission on February 3, 2005, and later amendments adopted by the Commission, as follows. Requires the Plan and implementing rules to include: (1) a slot limit that allows commercial and recreational fishermen to retain only Southern Flounder between 12-18 inches long, (2) capping the total allowable landings of Southern Flounder in a year at 532,352 pounds from the commercial and recreational sectors combined until a new stock assessment indicates that harvest can be increased (requires total allowable landings for each sector to account for discards in all fisheries interacting with Southern Flounder, and quota overages in one year for a sector must be remedied with a sector reduction in the next year), and (3) failure to reach a sustainable harvest by the statutory 10-year deadline of 2028 specified in the last Plan amendment will result in the implementation of an immediate moratorium on any harvest or possession of Southern Flounder until the stock is found to be recovered based on a peer-reviewed stock assessment. 

    Appropriates $75,000 for 2021-22 from the General Fund to the Department of Environmental Quality to be allocated to the Division of Marine Fisheries to update the coastwide stock assessment for Southern Flounder as set forth in this act.