Saturday, September 21, 2013

North Carolina Sea Turtle Interaction Regulations

The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) recently received clarification from the National Marine Fisheries Service concerning who will be required to report interactions with sea turtles under an incidental take permit received by DMF.

“The reporting requirement only applies to commercial and recreational gill netters,” said Louis Daniel, director of the Division of Marine Fisheries.

The division earlier reported that the requirement applied to all commercial and recreational gears.

Any gill net fisherman, using large or small mesh gill nets, must report any incidental capture of a sea turtle to the division at 252-726-7021 or 1-800-682-2632.

The incidental take permit for sea turtles in the estuarine large and small mesh gill net fisheries authorizes limited incidental takes of sea turtles in these fisheries.

The permit will allow the division to reopen many waters of the state that have been closed to large-mesh gill nets since July. However, the division is still waiting to reopen these waters due to the continued presence of sea turtles.

source: North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries

No comments:

Post a Comment