According to the information the N.C. Fisheries Commission has send the issue to the four regional advisory committees, as well as the Finfish Advisory Committee, to get input from the fishing public. N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries spokeswoman Patricia Smith said that the report of public input will be made to the commission at its August meeting.
The recommendation includes a paper on the use of hook and line gear in the Atlantic Ocean striped bass fishery at the May 12 meeting. The division began receiving reports of the discard of fish from trawlers over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend in January and staff was able to document an incident of an overloaded fishing net that prompted fishermen on a commercial trawler to discard an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 fish.
As the fish kill increases there have been requests from the public for the state to close the trawl fishery and develop and allow a commercial hook and line gear for the fishery. Currently, ocean striped bass can only be caught commercially using trawls, gill nets and beach seines. Another significant issue is the likely influx of participants into a commercial hook-and-line fishery.
