The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries is accepting public comment on the draft Eastern Oyster Fishery Management Plan Amendment 5 and draft Hard Clam Fishery Management Plan Amendment 3.
Comments may be given in writing and at any of four advisory committee meetings scheduled for January:
| Advisory Committee | Date/Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
Northern Regional Advisory Committee | Jan. 7 at 6 p.m. | Dare County Administration Building Room 168 954 Marshall Collins Drive Manteo, NC 27954 |
Southern Regional Advisory Committee | Jan. 8 at 6 p.m. | Division of Marine Fisheries Central District Office 5285 Highway 70 West Morehead City, NC 28557 |
Shellfish/Crustacean Advisory Committee | Jan. 9 at 6 p.m. | Department of Environmental Quality Washington Regional Office 943 Washington Square Mall Washington, NC 27889 |
Habitat and Water Quality Advisory Committee | Jan. 15 at 6 p.m. | Division of Marine Fisheries Central District Office 5285 Highway 70 West Morehead City, NC 28557 |
Written comments may be submitted through an online form or through mail to Draft Oyster/Clam FMP Amendments Comments, P.O. Box 769, Morehead City, N.C. 28557. Comments must be received by the Division of Marine Fisheries by 5 p.m. on Jan. 15, 2025.
There is no stock assessment for status determination of Eastern Oyster or Hard Clam. The goal of the fishery management plans is to manage the resource to maintain wild populations to provide long-term harvest and continue to offer protection and ecological benefits to North Carolina estuaries.
Recommendations in the draft oyster amendment include a three-tiered approach to maintain harvestable oyster populations from public bottom as well as protect essential habitat:
- Establish Deep-Water Oyster Recovery Areas (DORAs) in the Pamlico Sound, Pamlico River, and Neuse River that would not open to the mechanical harvest of oysters, to allow these reefs to accumulate shell material to gain the height necessary to be resilient to storm events.
- Link mechanical oyster harvest management in Pamlico Sound to the Division’s extensive cultch planting effort, determining season length based on pre-season sampling of oyster resources in each of these areas.
- The Cultch Planting Program has implemented a reef building strategy in Pamlico Sound to create large, roughly 10-acre cultch planting sites in areas open to mechanical harvest, with the goal of having at least 16 sites planted by 2026. Within each management area there would be four cultch sites integrated into a rotational opening plan.
The draft clam amendment recommends a 3-year phase out of mechanical clam harvest from public bottom, beginning with adoption of this amendment unless participation in the fishery increases to 10 participants and landings increase to 1 million clams in any year prior to 2027.
Both draft amendments discuss the need to establish a way to quantify recreational shellfish effort and landings and to establish a mechanism to provide all recreational shellfish harvesters with health and safety information.
For more information, see the Eastern Oyster Amendment 5 and Hard Clam Amendment 3 Information page or contact Joe Facendola or Bennett Pardis regarding oysters, and Jeffrey Dobbs or Lorena de la Garza regarding clams.