Hearing Set On New North Carolina Fishing Catch Reporting Requirement

Coastal recreational and commercial fishermen will have to report certain fish harvests under a new North Carolina law that takes effect later this year.

Preliminary details are scant as to how the two state agencies tasked with overseeing the reporting requirements will implement the program, one that is slated to be discussed during a combined virtual public hearing next week.

The N.C. Marine Fisheries and N.C. Wildlife Resources commissions have opened a public comment period ending May 20 on the temporary rules, which were established under the North Carolina General Assembly’s Regulatory Reform Act of 2023.

The mandatory harvest reporting requirements were tucked into the controversial law, one environmental advocates referred to as a “pro-polluter” bill for cutting favors to industries that control hog and poultry farming, discharge per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and build fracked gas pipelines.