THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 8, 1997 TAG: 9701080462
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
TYPE: Local Briefs
LENGTH: 25 lines
North Carolina ports will be closed to the landing of flounder caught in the Atlantic Ocean with commercial gear at 4 p.m. Friday.
The closure does not affect recreational flounder catches or flounder caught in sounds and estuaries.
Fishermen still will be allowed to land up to 100 pounds of ocean-caught flounder as a bycatch in non-flounder fisheries, such as the shrimp trawl fishery.
``This closure was triggered because it is projected that North Carolina will have taken 70 percent of its annual commercial flounder quota by Friday afternoon,'' said North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries Director Bruce Freeman. ``We are required to reserve 30 percent of our quota for the fall flounder season.''
North Carolina ports will reopen to the landing of flounder caught with commercial gear in the Atlantic Ocean on Nov. 1.
For more information, call Dennis Spitsbergen or Rick Monaghan at the Division of Marine Fisheries, (800) 682-2632 or (919) 726-7021.