Court Rules North Carolina Violated Legal Duty to Protect Coastal Fisheries
Last week, the Wake County Superior Court ruled in favor of the Coastal Conservation Association of North Carolina (“CCA NC”) and 86 individual citizens in their lawsuit to hold the State accountable for failing to protect North Carolina’s coastal fisheries. In the ruling, which follows six years of hard-fought litigation stemming from a 2020 CCA NC lawsuit, the Court ruled there was “overwhelming evidence” that the State breached its legal obligations to North Carolina citizens by not effectively managing its fisheries.Â
As one of many examples of the State’s extensive failures, the Court cited undisputed evidence that not a single one of North Carolina’s 13 state-managed coastal fish stocks is currently viable.
The six years of litigation included proceedings before the Court of Appeals, which unanimously ruled in favor of CCA NC and the individual plaintiffs in 2022. In that ruling, the Court of Appeals held that the State has “an affirmative duty” under the public-trust doctrine and the North Carolina Constitution to “preserve the people’s right to fish and harvest fish,” which includes a “duty to preserve fisheries for the benefit of the public” and a “duty to keep fisheries safe from injury, harm, or destruction for all time.”
Click the link below to read the full release from CCA NC.
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ASA Welcomes Pacific Bluefin Tuna Agreement
The American Sportfishing Association welcomed an agreement reached last week by the Joint Working Group of the Inter American Tropical Tuna Commission and Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission to advance a long term management procedure for Pacific bluefin tuna. The agreement must still be formally adopted by the IATTC and WCPFC before taking effect.
“Pacific bluefin tuna are an international fisheries success story,” said Larry Phillips, Pacific Fisheries Policy Director for the American Sportfishing Association and a member of the IATTC General Advisory Committee. “At its historic low, the stock was estimated at roughly 2 percent of its unfished spawning biomass. Today, spawning biomass is estimated at 23.2 percent of the unfished level and has increased rapidly since 2011. That recovery demonstrates what can be accomplished when nations work together, follow the science and make responsible management decisions.
Click the link below to read the full release from ASA.
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Last Chance to Comment on New South Atlantic Red Snapper EFPs
Florida, Georgia and South Carolina recently requested new Exempted Fishing Permits from NOAA Fisheries to test pilot programs for red snapper data collection and recreational harvest management in federal waters off their coasts. These new EFPs that would allow recreational harvest of red snapper in state and Federal waters during October. Additional fishing days may be allowed in December if the state’s harvest limit has not been met.
Comments are due August 25 – click the link below to make your voice heard today!Â
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