MOREHEAD CITY – The flounder trip limit will be reduced in the Pound Net Central Management Area Saturday. Additionally, the commercial flounder season reopens Friday for gigs and hook-and-line in the Mobile Gear Northern Management Area, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries announced Friday.
Beginning at 12.01 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, pound net harvest in the Pound Net Central Management Area will be limited to 1,000 pounds of flounder per day. The Pound Net Central Management Area includes Pamlico Sound and its tributaries. The trip limit is needed to ensure this fishery does not exceed its harvest quota, the division said.
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The commercial flounder season for pound nets in the Northern and Southern Pound Net Management Areas closed Oct. 6 as the pound net quota is nearly caught for both management areas. Flounder pound nets in these areas must be rendered inoperable. The Northern and Southern Pound Net Management Areas will not reopen to flounder harvest in 2022.
The commercial flounder season for gigs and hook-and-line in the Mobile Gear Northern Management Area reopens at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14 with a 50-fish per person per day trip limit. The harvest season will close when the total allowable landings for this sector is approached. The Mobile Gear Northern Management Area includes the upper portion of Core Sound and waters north to the Virginia state line.
Once the reopened season closes, the Division of Marine Fisheries said it will again evaluate flounder landings once all daily dealer reports are submitted. If the division determines quota is available for additional harvest days further proclamations will be issued.
The commercial flounder season in the Mobile Gear Southern Management Area closed Thursday. The mobile gear quota is nearly caught for this management area and will not reopen to flounder harvest in 2022. The Mobile Gear Southern Management Area encompasses the lower portion of Core Sound and waters south to the South Carolina state line.
For more specifics on the commercial flounder season for internal coastal waters, see Proclamation FF-52-2022.
The recreational flounder season closed Sept. 30.
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North Carolina’s southern flounder fisheries are managed under the Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan Amendment 3. For more information on the management measures, see the Southern Flounder Information Page under Hot Topics.
