A summit recognizing the 20th anniversary this year of the Fisheries Reform Act is set to revisit the creation of North Carolina’s first comprehensive fisheries management law.
Hosted by the nonprofit Outer Banks Catch, the summit is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27, at the Washington Civic Center in Beaufort County. Coffee and donuts will be served at 9:30 a.m. and a light lunch will be provided. Registration is required. The fee is $10.
With several recent environmental bills in the General Assembly that would dramatically affect fisheries in North Carolina, organizers are using the 20th anniversary as an opportunity to put the Fisheries Reform Act in context, explain what was originally in the act, how the changes to the act have impacted fisheries and how the future may shape the FRA.
Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. signed the Fisheries Reform Act into law Aug. 14, 1997, wrapping up a three-year process of meetings, discussions and debates on the future of fisheries management in the state, according to the North Carolina of Department of Environmental Quality website.
Momentum began when the General Assembly put a moratorium on the sale of most state commercial fishing licenses effective July 1, 1994. A moratorium steering committee was appointed to study the state’s coastal fisheries management process and to recommend changes to improve the system, meeting from November 1994 to October 1996, the final report for the moratorium stated. The reform package was created by legislators, commercial and recreational fishermen, scientists, fisheries managers and conservationists, with the goal to ensure healthy stocks, the recovery of depleted stocks and the best use of fisheries resources, stated the DEQ website.
During the summit Wednesday, there will be a range of panelists with varied expertise and connections to the act, some of whom were on the moratorium committee.
Sandy Semans Ross, president of Outer Banks Catch, told Coastal Review Online that part of the nonprofit organization’s mission is to provide education about fisheries so that the public and legislators can make fact-based decisions.
We have worked hard to bring in speakers who have firsthand knowledge of why and how the Fisheries Reform Act was written and implemented and the Emerging Issues panel of scientists will talk about topics that weren’t addressed at the time because they weren’t on anyone’s radar a perfect example is rising water temperatures changing migration patterns, she said. We think we have put together a solid program that will interest the general public, legislators, environmentalists and both recreation and commercial fishermen.
The first three panels will address the following questions:
Why was fisheries reform needed?
How were the recommendations that were the basis for the Fisheries Reform Act developed?
How were the new laws implemented?
The last two panels of the day will focus on Emerging Issues, which will consider new areas of concern fisheries are facing, and Does the Fisheries Reform need to be tweaked, if so, why or why not?
2017 North Carolina Coastal Federation