Post by hookedup on Feb 17, 2023 10:59:15 GMT -5
The National Marine Fisheries Service extended the public comment period on its Dec. 22, 2022, notice of receipt of North Carolina’s Incidental Take Permit application and conservation plan to address sturgeon and sea turtle interactions in the state’s estuarine anchored gill net fishery. The public comment period will end on Feb. 22, 2023.
The public may review and download the application at www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/endangered-species-conservation/incidental-take-permits and at www.regulations.gov.
Public comments may be submitted electronically via the Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov Click on the COMMENT button under the "Notice; receipt of application" section.
The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) applied for renewal of a federal Incidental Take Permit (ITP) that allows commercial gill net fishermen to injure or kill protected species, specifically, threatened and endangered sea turtles, and endangered Atlantic sturgeon, in our sounds and estuarine waters. The permit and its renewal for a 10-year period are highly controversial and being met with overwhelming objection from the public, including some in the commercial fishing industry.
The current 10-year ITP, originally granted in 2013 and set to expire on August 23 this year, has been an abject failure. The state’s renewal application even acknowledges the public opposition but is moving forward anyway. This renewal effort must be rejected. It is one part of a critically important issue facing all North Carolinians: the chronic decline of our coastal fisheries due to mass overharvesting for profit and the “regulatory capture” of public trust resource management policy.
The public may review and download the application at www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/endangered-species-conservation/incidental-take-permits and at www.regulations.gov.
Public comments may be submitted electronically via the Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov Click on the COMMENT button under the "Notice; receipt of application" section.
The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) applied for renewal of a federal Incidental Take Permit (ITP) that allows commercial gill net fishermen to injure or kill protected species, specifically, threatened and endangered sea turtles, and endangered Atlantic sturgeon, in our sounds and estuarine waters. The permit and its renewal for a 10-year period are highly controversial and being met with overwhelming objection from the public, including some in the commercial fishing industry.
The current 10-year ITP, originally granted in 2013 and set to expire on August 23 this year, has been an abject failure. The state’s renewal application even acknowledges the public opposition but is moving forward anyway. This renewal effort must be rejected. It is one part of a critically important issue facing all North Carolinians: the chronic decline of our coastal fisheries due to mass overharvesting for profit and the “regulatory capture” of public trust resource management policy.