A meeting of the North Carolina Commercial Fishing Resource Funding Committee has been rescheduled to noon on Jan. 4, 2017 at the Department of Environmental Quality’s Washington Regional Office, 943 Washington Square Mall, Washington.
The meeting was rescheduled due to an anticipated lack of the required number of attendees for the original Dec. 28 meeting date.
The committee will consider terms for a memorandum of understanding with the Marine Fisheries Commission, options for spending from the fund, and any additional related issues.
The Commercial Fishing Resource Funding Committee is charged with deciding how to spend money from a fund receiving partial proceeds from commercial fishing license sales.
In 2014, the N.C. General Assembly approved a fee increase for six commercial fishing licenses. The fee increase began in fiscal year 2015-2016. Under the law, proceeds from the increased fees goes into a Commercial Fishing Resource Fund.
The fund pays for observer coverage to fulfill the state’s obligations under incidental take permits for sea turtles and Atlantic sturgeon under the federal Endangered Species Act. Without the incidental take permits, the state’s gill net fisheries must close.
Any additional money from the fund is to be used for projects to develop and support sustainable commercial fishing in the state. Spending from the fund must be approved by the Marine Fisheries Commission and the Funding Committee, which is made up of six commercial fishing representatives.
The Marine Fisheries Commission has delegated its funding decisions to a Marine Fisheries Commission Commercial Fishing Resource Fund Committee comprised of members of the commission holding the three commercial fishing seats.
The meeting is open to the public. An agenda can be found here.
For more information, contact Beth Govoni, Grants Program Manager with the Division of Marine Fisheries, at 252-808-8015 or Beth.Govoni@ncdenr.gov.