Post by Logan on Jun 18, 2016 6:35:01 GMT -6
RALEIGH -- It looks like the other shoe has dropped on legislators' promise that they were "watching" the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission.
A provision in the N.C. Senate's version of the state budget, making its way through the General Assembly, would cut two members from the nine-person commission. A supermajority -- five out of seven commissioners -- would also be required for the commission to take virtually any action, including changing rules on fishing regulations.
Per another provision, if the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality directs the commission to create a fisheries management plan supplement -- a stop-gap measure intended to quickly protect species that may be in decline -- it could not include strategies that were not a part of the original management plan or rules that "result in severe curtailment of the usefulness or value of equipment."
Less room for disagreement
The provisions appear to be legislators' response to flounder fishing rules the commission approved in November. Those rules added season closures for southern flounder fishing, increased the minimum catch length for the fish and set new rules for gill nets, pound nets and trammel nets.
Read more: www.starnewsonline.com/article/20160616/NEWS/160619764/0/search
A provision in the N.C. Senate's version of the state budget, making its way through the General Assembly, would cut two members from the nine-person commission. A supermajority -- five out of seven commissioners -- would also be required for the commission to take virtually any action, including changing rules on fishing regulations.
Per another provision, if the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality directs the commission to create a fisheries management plan supplement -- a stop-gap measure intended to quickly protect species that may be in decline -- it could not include strategies that were not a part of the original management plan or rules that "result in severe curtailment of the usefulness or value of equipment."
Less room for disagreement
The provisions appear to be legislators' response to flounder fishing rules the commission approved in November. Those rules added season closures for southern flounder fishing, increased the minimum catch length for the fish and set new rules for gill nets, pound nets and trammel nets.
Read more: www.starnewsonline.com/article/20160616/NEWS/160619764/0/search