KITTY HAWK, N.C. — For the second straight year, the spotted sea trout season was closed by the Division of Marine Fisheries in early February. Lucas Pensinger, a biologist supervisor in Morehead City with the DMF, said he believes this is the first back-to-back closure since the division began closing fisheries due to cold stunning.
"Since we've had the ability within the spotted seatrout fishery management plan to close the fishery, this is the first time we've had to do it in back to back years," said Pensinger.
"We've got three aisles in our store of stuff that will not be touched or touched very little," said Keith Tongier, who has worked at TW's Bait and Tackle in Kitty Hawk for 34 years.
Tongier was one of a handful of Outer Banks locals and leaders who took to the podium Wednesday night during public comment for the quarterly Marine Fisheries Commission meeting in Kitty Hawk. Tongier said the start of the year spotted sea trout season sets the tone for business each year.
"Last year's cold stun event, it absolutely killed our trout business, which is one of our biggest things that happens early in the year. That gets us going out of the gate, that's whether we're going to make a profit for the year or not," said Tongier.
In early February, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries closed down the spotted sea trout season for the second year in a row due to cold stunning events in state waters. At the Marine Fisheries Commission meeting in Kitty Hawk on Thursday, Pensinger discussed it.
"By around February 4, I had received 19 distinct cold stun reports, and when I say distinct I mean distinct water bodies, distinct creeks, distinct bays. So these aren't just 19 reports all coming from the same area. It was pretty obvious that we were seeing hundreds, if not 1000s, of spotted sea trout dead in some places. The adaptive management within amendment one to the spotted sea trout fishery management plan says that in those cases, the fisheries director should issue a proclamation to close the fishery," said Pensinger.
Pensinger said the winter weather we had in late January and early February played a major role in the cold stun event and eventual closure, which was done to allow the population to recover in the coming months.
"Really it was the, just the sheer number of dead fish that we were seeing," said Pensinger.
Also sharing that it's a decision the division doesn't make lightly.
"We do recognize, for folks who make a living off of the fishery, that does hurt. The balance is just really trying to limit the time of that closure but still be able to protect the population," said Pensinger.
For Tongier, he's disappointed that a decision was made so soon and feels instead of a closure there should be some kind of balance.
"Instead of closing it down, one or two fish, make it a big limit, make it a 16 to 22 inch limit, two fish. We didn't need two years of this in a row, and I thought with last year being as, there was plenty of speckled trout during the closure out there," said Tongier.
Despite the frustration over it, Tongier encouraged residents and visitors to still support the fishing industry here.
"Come down and see us, because we still got great fishing. These charter captains, are the best in the world and they're great at what they do, but just give us some fish," said Tongier.
Pensinger explained that during cold stun events, they take two factors into consideration when it comes to the cold stun events: the number of dead fish and the water temperature. Though some areas in the state may have been hit harder by this year's cold stun, the division feels it's better to close the season entirely instead of having an uptick of fishing in the areas where the healthy population is located.
"The idea is really just to say, let all of those fish come back and contribute more to the population, rather than shifting that fishing effort into hammering the healthy portion of the population harder, but again, not easy decisions that we make lightly," said Pensinger.
The spotted sea trout season will be closed until June 30.
