UNITED STATES
Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 03:00 (GMT + 9)

North Carolina’s Marine Fisheries Commission has decided to permit ocean trawling for striped bass to go on this season, despite two prominent mass striped bass fish kills reportedly caused by trawling. It will also consider commercial hook-and-line fishing.

Although the season will reopen for one day at a time until the seasonal quota is satisfied, trawlers will be limited to tows lasting 30 minutes because, according to research, limiting the time nets in the water are pulled can lessen mortality, the state's Division of Marine Fisheries said.

"Our experience has been from tagging cruises for the last 20 years, you get a lot of successful releases, live releases from trawls," said division Director Louis Daniel, reports WAVY.

Ocean trawling got a blow during Martin Luther King Day weekend last month when people posted photos and videos of dead fish on the Internet and sparked a commotion over waste associated with the fishing method, The Outer Banks Voice reports.

Trawlers were found to have been operating legally, yet state officials decided to modify catch limits from 50 fish a day to 2,000 lb and allowed catches that would exceed the limit to be transferred to other vessels on the waters. The change is meant to diminish fish deaths from catches and dampen high-grading.

“As we finish out this season, fishermen need to be mindful of the events that have occurred and the concerns that have been expressed by the public and do everything they can to avoid the appearance of waste,” Daniel said.

But some critics argue the new limit will not make a big difference, since 50 large fish could easily weigh 2,000 lb.

Following the incident on the Internet last month, when the season reopened for two days at the beginning of February, the state received additional complaints about dead fish, with 251 dead fish counted along the shore. Since then, the striped bass trawl fishery has been closed.

Daniel has not yet determined when the fishery will be reopened.

After its 6-2 vote last week to reopen the season for trawling, the commission requested that the division come up with a proposal to allow for a commercial hook and line fishery; the idea will be discussed at a future meeting.

Of the 160,160-lb quota for the trawl fishery for 2011, 110,000 lb remained before the last two-day reopening of the season for trawling earlier this month.