M-8-2020

PROCLAMATION

RE: RULE SUSPENSION - BLUE CRAB FMP AMENDMENT 3 MANAGEMENT MEASURES

This proclamation supersedes Proclamation M-11-2016, dated June 3, 2016. This proclamation implements blue crab harvest restrictions adopted by the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission at their February 20, 2020 business meeting and incorporated in Amendment 3 to the North Carolina Blue Crab Fishery Management Plan. It prohibits the harvest of mature female hard blue crabs less than 5 inches and immature female hard blue crabs. It maintains the prohibition on the possession of mature female hard blue crabs with dark sponges from April 1 through April 30. It maintains the culling tolerance for prohibited blue crabs at 5 percent by number. It maintains the prohibition of targeted crab dredging and reduces the allowable crab harvest from oyster dredge operations. It maintains the requirement for crab pots to have a third escape ring with a minimum inside diameter of two and five-sixteenths inches as well as the installation location for the third escape ring. It also removes the cull ring exemptions for the Newport River and eastern Pamlico Sound and further prohibits designating areas exempt from the cull ring requirements.

Stephen W. Murphey, Director, Division of Marine Fisheries, hereby announces that effective at effective at 12:01 A.M., Friday, May 1, 2020 the following restrictions shall apply to the harvest of blue crabs:

I. SUSPENSION OF ALL OR PORTIONS OF N.C. MARINE FISHERIES COMMISSION RULES 15A NCAC 03L .0201, 03L .0203, AND 03J .0301.
The following portion of N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission Rule 15A NCAC 03L .0201 is suspended:

Sections (a) and (b), which read:

a) It is unlawful to possess more than 10 percent by number in any container, male and immature female hard blue crabs less than five inches from tip of spike to tip of spike and to fail to return hard blue crabs not meeting this restriction to the waters from which taken, except the Fisheries Director may, by proclamation authority established in Paragraph (f) of this Rule, further restrict the harvest of blue crabs. All blue crabs not sorted into containers as specified in Paragraph (b) of this Rule shall be deemed hard blue crabs for the purpose of establishing the 10 percent culling tolerance.
b) It is unlawful to possess blue crabs less than five inches from tip of spike to tip of spike unless individual crabs are sorted to and placed in separate containers for each of the following categories:

1) soft crabs;
2) pink and red-line peeler crabs;
3) white-line peeler crabs; and
4) from March 1 through October 31, male crabs to be used as peeler crab bait.

The following portion of N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission Rule 15A NCAC 03L .0203 is suspended:
Section (a), which reads:

a) It is unlawful to take crabs with dredges except:

1) from January 1 through March 1 in the area of Pamlico Sound described in 15A NCAC 03R .0109; and
2) incidental to lawful oyster dredging operations in areas not subject to the exception in Subparagraph (a)(1) of this Rule provided the weight of the crabs shall not exceed:

A. 50 percent of the total weight of the combined oyster and crab catch; or
B. 500 pounds, whichever is less.

The following portion of N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission Rule 15A NCAC 03J .0301 is suspended:

Sections (g) and (h), which read:

g) It is unlawful to use crab pots in Coastal Fishing Waters unless each pot contains no less than two unobstructed escape rings that are at least two and five-sixteenths inches inside diameter and located in the opposite outside panels of the upper chamber of the pot, except the following are exempt from the escape ring requirements:

1) unbaited pots;
2) pots baited with a male crab; and
3) pots set in areas and during time periods described in 15A NCAC 03R .0118.

h) The Fisheries Director may, by proclamation, exempt the escape ring requirements described in Paragraph (g) of this Rule in order to allow the harvest of mature female crabs and may impose any or all of the following restrictions:

1) specify time;
2) specify area;
3) specify means and methods;
4) specify seasons; and
5) specify quantity.