Commission places hearty restriction on flounder harvest season

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Nearly three weeks ago, the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission closed recreational fishing until next year and gave commercial fisherman a much shorter season for Southern Flounder.

According to the commission, Southern Flounder is one of the most caught species on the North Carolina coast.

“Flounder is one of the most important fish recreationally in this state,” Sammy Corbett, a commercial fisherman, said. “When people come down to the beach houses, they want to go catch flounder.”

He does not support the commission’s decision to cut back flounder fishing.

“When you completely close a fishery that’s as popular as flounder, you’re going to put that added pressure on everything else,” Corbett said.

The Division of Marine Fisheries closed the commercial and recreational season on September 4th in order to rebuild stock.

But, Corbett, a commercial fisherman, says overfishing is not the culprit of a low flounder stock.

“Our biggest problem is water quality and loss of habitat because our estuaries because of hurricanes washing the sand off our beaches and filling in our estuaries,” Corbett said.

Corbett says this is lowering the water depth and sending the flounder farther out into the ocean. But, he says the commission’s assessment that forced this change does not give the best data of the stock.

Corbett says local seafood markets can explore other options, but it won’t compare to the Southern Flounder.

“They can get fish from other states possibly, but it wont be the same fish,” Corbett said. “It will be a type of flounder. Some of them will probably use halibut. There’s also fish that come in form Argentina and Chile, but it doesn’t taste like our flounder. It’s flat with two eyes on the same side.”

But, he says when this plan was first discussed, commercial fisherman immediately started searching for alternative stock so their pockets wouldn’t take a hard it.

“So, they went to Spanish Mackerel fish,” Corbett said. “For the first time in many many years, they caught the Spanish Mackerel quota, so its closed now and now they are buying crab pods.”

The commission plans to rebuild stock to achieve sustainable harvest within the next 10 years.

The commission has granted flounder harvest season from Core Sound to the South Carolina border starting October 1st through November 15th.