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In Management Unit A, North Carolina Marine Fisheries Proclamation M-21-2020 removes attendance requirements and imposes vertical height restrictions for anchored gill nets with a stretched mesh length of 3 inches through 3¾ inches. It maintains the exempted portion of Management Unit A that allows the use of run-around, strike, drop and trammel gill nets with a stretched mesh length of 5½ inches through 6½ inches to harvest blue catfish.

The proclamation is effective Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020 at 12:01 a.m.

Management Unit A encompasses all internal coastal waters including Albemarle, Currituck, Croatan and Roanoke sounds and their tributaries.

The nets must be set to fish the bottom of the water column and not to exceed a vertical height of 48 inches off the bottom. Vertical height is defined as the distance between the top and bottom lines of the net.

A gill net with a stretched mesh length of 5½ inches through 6½ inches in any combination per commercial fishing operation is limited to 800 yards.

In another restriction, it is unlawful to use drift gill nets in the joint fishing waters portion of the Roanoke, Middle, Eastmost, Cashie, Chowan and Meherrin rivers and all other joint water tributaries of the Albemarle Sound Management Area.

The intent of this proclamation is to implement gill net restrictions in accordance with Amendment 2 to the N.C. Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan and allow fisheries for other species to occur while minimizing interactions with threatened and/or endangered species.

READ MORE IN OUR ON THE WATER SECTION HERE.