{"id":23830,"date":"2025-11-19T13:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T13:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/?p=23830"},"modified":"2025-11-19T13:48:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T13:48:32","slug":"the-nc-blue-crab-fishery-opposes-harvest-reduction-before-key-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/11\/19\/the-nc-blue-crab-fishery-opposes-harvest-reduction-before-key-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"The NC blue crab fishery opposes harvest reduction before key meeting\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Fishers and coastal politicians in North Carolina (NC) have rallied against a proposal to limit blue crab harvest under Amendment 3. This is happening just before the Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) meets to discuss the issue on November 19-20, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A group consisting of county commissioners from at least 15 coastal counties has been opposing the proposal beginning August 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On its part, the MFC will use today\u2019s Wrightsville Beach meeting to discuss the controversial Blue Crab Fishery Management Plan Amendment 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The amendment seeks to limit bag limits and extend temporary fishery closures over the current ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So far, the northern fishery near Carteret County\u2019s bridge experiences January 1-31 closure while the southern one March 1-15.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are also proposals to add extra closures to the north side of Emerald Isle bridge, beginning January 1, 2026.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If it happens, fishers on the northern banks of the bridge will only access&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/coastalreview.org\/2025\/11\/fisheries-to-vote-on-proposed-blue-crab-harvest-rules\/\"><u>30 bushels<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;per excursion between September and December. This is even as those on the south side will have a bag limit of 15 bushels daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These extra proposals have prompted lawmakers to vote to stop further regulation until a scientific stock assessment happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the lawmakers is Janet Rose, Commissioner of Currituck County. On November 5, Rose opined that a 30-bushel limit deprives local fishers 40 to 50% of their daily harvest of 50-60 bushels.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-status-so-far\"><strong>The Status so Far&nbsp;<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The current regulation by the MFC\u2019s Amendment 3 banks on a pre-2016 stock assessment report.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those opposed to harvest cuts therefore call for a stock assessment plan before any more regulation.&nbsp;<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Regarding the stock status,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nccatch.org\/news-and-updates\/proposed-blue-crab-regulations-by-mfc\"><u>scientists&nbsp;<\/u><\/a>from the NC State university are citing no evidence of over-harvesting the female crab resource.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stakeholders add that the imposition of partial harvest limits has allowed in competition from foreign\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/crab\/\"><u>cheap crab<\/u><\/a>\u00a0sales, affecting local fishermen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Proponents of the harvest reduction in their part cite that the NC blue crab resource is approaching depletion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A virtual model by the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/summer-2025-blue-crabs\/\"><u>North Carolina Sea Grant<\/u><\/a>\u00a0and the state\u2019s university visualizes NC\u2019s blue crab resource going extinct in 10 to 20 years. This would be equivalent to a landings toll of almost 2.2 million pounds, annually. Historical stock conditions however place North Carolina among the U.S.\u2019 key sources of blue crab, per the stats below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-nc-blue-crab-statistics\"><strong>NC Blue Crab&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>Statistics&nbsp;<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;state of North Carolina ranks 3<sup>rd<\/sup>&nbsp;in blue crab landings in the United States. Along with Louisiana, Maryland and Virginia, NC represents&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.seafoodwatch.org\/globalassets\/sfw-data-blocks\/reports\/C\/MBA_SeafoodWatch_BlueCrabReport.pdf\"><u>75%&nbsp;<\/u><\/a>of America\u2019s blue crab annual catch, per the Seafood Watch. The resource ranks first in NC\u2019s seafood production. It also provides around&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/coastalreview.org\/2025\/11\/fisheries-to-vote-on-proposed-blue-crab-harvest-rules\/\"><u>1,200 jobs<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;mostly in coastline counties such as Chowan, Hyde and Pamlico.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How has the hard\/blue crab population of NC progressed through recent history?<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Findings show that commercial landings of hard crab from North Carolina historically declined from peaks of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.seafoodwatch.org\/globalassets\/sfw-data-blocks\/reports\/C\/MBA_SeafoodWatch_BlueCrabReport.pdf\"><u>nearly 70 million pounds<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;in 1996. Two decades later in 2015, they were under 40 million pounds. The table below interprets historical catches from a graphical representation by the Seafood Watch:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Highlight Year<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Hard Blue crab Landings [pounds]<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2015<\/td><td>Over 30 million<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2003<\/td><td>Over 40 million<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>1998<\/td><td>Over 60 million<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>1996<\/td><td>Under 70 million<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>1987<\/td><td>Over 30 million<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fig: historical highlights of blue crab landings in North Carolina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fishers and coastal politicians in North Carolina (NC) have rallied against a proposal to limit blue crab harvest under Amendment 3. This is happening just before the Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) meets to discuss the issue on November 19-20, 2025.\u00a0 A group consisting of county commissioners from at least 15 coastal counties has been opposing&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v16.3 (Yoast SEO v20.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The NC blue crab fishery opposes harvest reduction before key meeting\u00a0 - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/11\/19\/the-nc-blue-crab-fishery-opposes-harvest-reduction-before-key-meeting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The NC blue crab fishery opposes harvest reduction before key meeting\u00a0 - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fishers and coastal politicians in North Carolina (NC) have rallied against a proposal to limit blue crab harvest under Amendment 3. 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