NORTH CAROLINA LEGISLATORS TRY TO HOLD BACK FLOUNDER RECOVERY

 

The parable of King Canute and the rising tide is a well-known episode in the lore of Christian England.  As the story goes,

“Canute set his throne by the sea shore and commanded the incoming tide to halt and not to wet his feet and robes.  Yet, ‘continuing to rise as usual [the tide] dashed over his feet and legs without respect for his royal person.  Then the king leapt backwards, saying, ‘Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and the sea obey by eternal laws.’  He then hung his gold crown on a crucifix, and never wore it again ‘to the honor of God the almighty King.”

The tale is often misinterpreted as depicting royal arrogance, and a king who thought he could hold back the tide by the power of his command alone, when in fact it was one of humility, a tale which saw Canute demonstrate to his courtiers that no royal command has the power to dictate how natural forces behave.

Unfortunately, there seems to far too many North Carolina legislators who lack Canute’s wisdom and humility, and could take some important lessons from that erstwhile king.

Such legislators appear to believe that they can dictate rebuilding terms to the state’s badly overfished southern flounder, without regard to biology and the needs of the flounder stock.

Southern flounder have been overfished for many years.  The North Carolina Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan Amendment 3, released in May 2022, advised that

“The 2019 coast-wide stock assessment, including data through 2017, determined the southern flounder stock is overfished and overfishing is occurring.  North Carolina law requires management action to end overfishing within two years.  Recovery of the stock from an overfished condition must occur within 10 years and provide at least a 50% probability of success from the date the plan is adopted.  Rebuilding of this stock within 10 years requires a minimum reduction of 52% in total annual removals by weight for both the commercial and recreational fisheries based on 2017 harvest (landings and dead discards).  Amendment 3 further refines and builds on action taken in Amendment 2, which adopted a more conservative 72% reduction for the fisheries to help ensure the statutory requirements for rebuilding the southern flounder stock, described above, are met.  Management strategies implemented through Amendment 3 will not restart the time requirements set in Addendum 2 as approved in August 2019, that are necessary to meet the statutory mandate.”

So far, so good.  North Carolina determined that southern flounder are badly overfished and, in accordance with state law, state fisheries managers adopted a conservative rebuilding plan likely to rebuild the stock within 10 years.

The problem is that southern flounder are very popular with anglers.  Amendment 3 noted that in 20 out of the previous 30 years, southern flounder were the most popular recreational fish species in North Carolina.  When a popular recreational species becomes overfished, and faces the sort of strict recreational management measures necessary to rebuild southern flounder by the 2028 deadline, sparks can begin to fly as the tourism and recreational fishing industries clash with fisheries managers.

That happened with North Carolina flounder.

Prior to the adoption of Amendment 3, anglers were allowed to retain four flounder (which might include any combination of the three flounder species—southern flounder, summer flounder, and Gulf flounder—found in the state’s waters), provided that each fish was no less than 15 inches long, during the course of a very short season that only included the first two weeks of September.  However, on about 93% of the trips that saw flounder landed, anglers only kept a single fish.  That made it very difficult to implement Amendment 3’s 72% reduction in recreational fishing mortality (other strict restrictions were also being placed on the commercial fishery, to achieve a similar reduction there), because bag limits would be practically ineffective.  Given that the open season only lasted two weeks, it would also be very difficult to use a shortened season to achieve the needed cut.

In the end, North Carolina adopted hard-poundage quotas for both the commercial and the recreational fisheries, and required pound-for-pound paybacks in the following year if a quota was exceeded. 

In 2022, the recreational quota was 170,655 pounds, but the recreational catch (a combination of landings and dead discards) was substantially higher at 226,995 pounds.  As a result, anglers had to pay back 56,340 pounds in 2023.  That payback requirement led to an adjusted quota of just 114,315 pounds.  But in that 2023, the recreational catch was even higher than it was in 2022, totaling 241,609 pounds; that meant that anglers would have to pay back 127,294 pounds in 2024.  When that amount was deducted from 2024’s 170,655 quota, it left an adjusted quota of just 43,361 pounds—an adjusted quota that, based on the experience of the past two years, was far too small to cover 2024’s dead discards, much less any landings.

North Carolina thus decided to close the 2024 recreational fishery completely.

Patricia Smith, a spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, said that, as a result of that closure,

“We have a lot of angry fishermen,”

who characterized the closure as “government overreach,” argued that it was based on unreliable data, and blamed the commercial fishing industry for any problems that the southern flounder might be experiencing.

Anglers’ arguments convinced the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, which has jurisdiction over southern flounder caught inside coastal rivers (as opposed to the Marine Fisheries Commission, which regulates flounder caught in marine and estuarine waters) that the adjusted 2024 recreational quota was large enough to allow a four-day season encompassing the first two weekends in September, with a 1-fish bag limit and 15-inch minimum size.  Members of the Wildlife Resources Commission thought it was unfair that commercial fishermen could fish in 2024 when anglers couldn’t, that the recreational summer flounder allocation was too small (the allocation has since been amended to provide more flounder to the recreational sector), and that, if anything, the commercial fishery should have been closed to allow for at least some recreational fishing.

Now, North Carolina legislators have decided to intervene, cast scientific advice to the wind, and establish an arbitrary recreational fishing season, apparently determining that, as legislators, they will be able to command the stock to recover under whatever terms the lawmakers chose.

Thus, on May 7, the North Carolina House passed House Bill 442, titled “An Act to Restore Recreational Fishing for Flounder and Red Snapper in North Carolina Through the Creation of a Four-Year Pilot Program.”  The bill states, in part, that

“Whereas, in 2024, the Division of Marine Fisheries of the Department of Environmental Quality issued proclamations limiting the recreational harvest of flounder to four days in joint fishing waters…; and

“Whereas, the recreational fishing industry contributes significantly to the economy of coastal North Carolina; and

“Whereas, North Carolina’s restrictions on recreational fishing of flounder…are more stringent than any other Southeastern state from Virginia to Texas; and

“Whereas, there is considerable overlap in the fish populations between southeastern counties of the State, such as Brunswick County, and South Carolina; and

“Whereas, higher creel and season limits in South Carolina in 2024 gives that state a significant competitive advantage in the competition for recreational fishing tourism; and

“Whereas, state policies regarding recreational catch and release reporting and data analysis overestimate overall mortality, thus skewing the science on the flounder fishery; and

“Whereas, coastal fishing charters or individual boats report catching large amounts of these species by accident and having to release them, indicating the populations are plentiful; and

“Whereas, these unnecessarily strict and possibly unscientific restrictions on the recreational fishing industry forces recreational fishing customers and captains to move much of their business to South Carolina and Virginia; Now, therefore,

“The General Assembly…”

commanded that southern flounder find a way to rebuild—or at least not to decline any further—with a six-week recreational fishing season that occurs sometime between May 15 and November 15 with a one-fish bag limit and no annual recreational quota, plus a 750,000 pound commercial quota (which is more than 50% higher than Amendment 3’s 548,034-pound total allowable catch, which must be further divided among both the commercial and recreational fisheries).  Such measures would remain in place through 2029.

The bill passed the House on a lopsided 77-35 vote, and state Senator Norman W. Sanderson, a Republican from Pamlico, North Carolina who is co-chair of the Senate Agricultural Committee, expressed his intention to bring the bill up for a hearing there.

Thus, despite the objections of people like state Representative Pricey Harrison, a Democrat from Guilford, North Carolina, who declared that

“This is not a way to manage fisheries…We have experts,”

there is at least a reasonable chance that the legislation could be passed by the Senate and be signed into law.

Should that occur, North Carolina legislators will find themselves in a similar situation as King Canute, commanding the southern flounder population to rebuild or, at least, not to collapse.

If they find themselves in that position, it is unlikely that they will find their commands to the flounder any more successful than Canute’s command to the tide.