Tuesday, September 17, 2013

NC gillnet setback rule

This just came across my desk...
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100-yard gill net setback from most ocean beaches takes effect Sept. 15 – A 100-yard gill net setback from most North Carolina ocean beaches will go into place Sept. 15 for the protection of bottlenose dolphins.

N.C. Marine Fisheries Director Louis Daniel issued a proclamation today that will prohibit setting small mesh gill nets within 100 yards of the beach, except for the areas between Cape Lookout and Bogue Inlet and between Carolina Beach Inlet and the South Carolina line.

The measure was recommended by a National Marine Fisheries Service Bottlenose Dolphin Take Reduction Team after observer and stranding data collected for several years indicated small mesh gill nets in North Carolina continue to seriously injure and kill bottlenose dolphin at levels higher than allowed by a federal plan to reduce interactions.

The take reduction team recommended trying the two exempted areas for three years to allow officials to assess potential economic impact and conservation efficacy of the 100-yard setback. But the take reduction team also recommended that the state implement the setback in both these areas if there is one bottlenose dolphin interaction.

The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission endorsed implementing these measures at its August meeting.
The restriction applies to commercially- and recreationally-set gill nets with a mesh size of 5 inches or smaller. The restriction does not apply to strike nets used to surround a school of fish and immediately retrieve the catch. 

For coordinates and other specifics of the regulation, see Proclamation M-26-2013 at http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf/proclamations.
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What type of regulation is this? How might we go about doing a cost-benefit analysis of this rule? What are the benefits? What are the costs? Are there similar regulations in place elsewhere?

When we lived in Barbados (down the hill from UWI in Prospect), my wife and I would always be dismayed to see the seine net boat arrive on the reef near our house. We snorkeled and scuba dived nearly every day, and after a visit from a seine boat, there wouldn't be much of anything on the reef for a couple of weeks.

1 comment:

Hillary Carneal said...

The NC gillnet setback rule would be a performance standard. It enforces a no fishing zone with small gill nets within 100 yards of the beach. The benefits of this new rule would be that a much lower number of bottle nose dolphins are injured or killed by the nets. The costs of the rule would include the potential wages lost from using a gill net in that particular area and perhaps the cost of enforcing the rule. The state of Oregon has been debating banning gill nets completely for the past couple of years but it seems like the issue is being help up in court.
http://www.fishermensnews.com/story/2013/04/01/features/appeals-court-puts-oregons-gill-net-fishing-rules-on-hold-for-now/160.html