by Craig Holt
"For the first time, the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries has been forced to close all speckled trout fishing in North Carolina waters. And cold weather is the reason. The moratorium for commercial and recreational anglers starts Friday, Jan. 14, at noon. No one will be allowed to catch, possess or sell specks after that time.
“This action is being taken in response to recent cold-stun events affecting mainly spotted seatrout,” Dr. Louis Daniel, the NCDMF’s executive director, announced in the proclamation, which was posted Jan. 11 on the division’s website. “The intent of this action is to prevent harvest of vulnerable cold-stunned fish which may recover with warming water temperatures. “In approving the Spotted Seatrout Fishery Management Plan, the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission authorized the director to intervene in the event of a catastrophic event and do what is necessary in terms of temporary closures.”
Daniel said the proclamation would stay in effect until the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission’s decides it should be lifted. The Commission’s next meeting occurs in four weeks at Pine Knoll Shores.
The coldest December on record, including a snow storm on Christmas Day, followed by a snow-and-ice storm that blanketed the state a week later, lowered temperatures in many coastal inshore waters, especially creeks where spotted seatrout live during winter. Those cold waters “stunned” trout, causing them to die because they could not swim and force oxygen over their gills.
Daniel said he was forced to err on the side of caution in proclaiming the speckled trout moratorium.
“We’ve seen some of the fish are stunned but recover, but with the (cold-stun) event of (January) 2009, plus this year’s events and the fishing pressure from commercial and recreational fishermen, I couldn’t take a chance,” he said. “I just couldn’t sit by and do nothing.”
Cold weather started affecting speckled trout (and other species) as early as December and continued almost unabated until Daniel’s proclamation, according to Beth Burns of Manteo, the biologist who heads up NCDMF’s spotted seatrout program.
“When officers checked out Campbell’s Creek (off the Pamlico Sound near Hobucken) for the third time the morning of Jan. 11 and saw hundreds of specks on the bottom and more stunned trout swimming around, it was the last straw,” she said.
