M-5-2015
PROCLAMATION
RE: RULE SUSPENSION-GILL NET RESTRICTIONS: INTERNAL COASTAL WATERS
Dr. Louis B. Daniel III, Director, Division of Marine Fisheries, hereby announces that effective at 12:01 A.M., Monday, April 13, 2015, the following provisions shall apply to the use of gill nets south of Management Unit A:
I.SUSPENSION OF A PORTION OF MARINE FISHERIES COMMISSION RULE 15A NCAC 03J .0103
The following portion of N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission Rule 15A NCAC 03J .0103 is suspended:
Section (i) (1), which reads:
(i)For gill nets with a mesh length five inches or greater, it is unlawful:
(1) To use more than 3,000 yards of gill net per vessel in internal waters regardless of the
number of individuals involved.
The provisions below in this proclamation shall be complied with at all times.
II. AREA DESCRIPTIONS:
It is unlawful to use gill nets with a stretched mesh length of 4 inches through 6 ½ inches in Internal Coastal Waters except those described below (areas not listed below remain closed to gill nets with a stretched mesh length of 4 inches through 6 ½ inches):
A. Management Unit B: Internal Coastal Waters, bounded on the north by 35°46.3000’N latitude, on the south by 34°48.2700’N latitude which runs approximately from the Club House on Core Banks westerly to a point on the shore at Davis near Marker “1”, and on the west by 76° 30.0000’W longitude.
B. Management Unit C: Pamlico, Pungo, Bay and Neuse river drainages and Internal Coastal Waters of Pamlico Sound west of 76° 30.0000’W.
C. Management Unit D1: encompasses all estuarine waters south of 34° 48.2700’N and east of a line running from 34° 40.6750’N – 76° 37.0000’W to 34° 42.4800’N – 76° 37.0000’W then to the head of Turner Creek, and northerly up the western shoreline of the North River. Management Unit D1 includes Southern Core Sound, Back Sound, and North River.
D. Management Unit D2: all Internal Coastal Waters west of a line running from 34° 40.6750’N – 76° 37.0000’W to 34° 42.4800’N – 76° 37.0000’Wthen to the head of Turner Creek, and northerly up the western shoreline of the North River; and east of theNC Hwy 58 Bridge. Management Unit D2 includes
Newport River (including the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and Harlowe Creek up to NC Hwy 101 Bridge) and Bogue Sound.
E. Management Unit E: all Internal Coastal Waters south and west of the Highway 58 Bridge to the North Carolina/South Carolina state line. This includes the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and adjacent sounds and the New, Cape Fear, Lockwood Folly, White Oak, and Shallotte Rivers.