NEW HANOVER COUNTY — The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries today announced that the 2025 recreational flounder season will open in coastal and joint waters of the state this fall.
READ MORE: Local rep, fishermen call on state to improve fishery management after flounder season cancellation
Dates for the season are Sept. 1 at 12:01 a.m. through Sept. 14 at 11:59 p.m.
The two-week season will open with the following provisions for both the recreational hook-and-line and gig fisheries:
- A one-fish per person per day creel limit
- A 15-inch total length minimum size limit (from the tip of the snout to the tip of the tail)
Harvest of flounder with a recreational commercial gear license will be prohibited.
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission’s flounder season will be open Sept. 1-14 as well, so the season, size limit, and daily creel limit will be consistent across jurisdictions.
The season, size and creel limits comply with provisions of the North Carolina Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan Amendment 3, which specifies that season and possession limits be set annually to keep the fishery within the recreational quota. The current 2025 recreational quota under Amendment 3 is 212,941 pounds, or 40% of the overall quota.
The Marine Fisheries Commission is scheduled to vote on adoption of Draft Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan Amendment 4 at its August 20-22 business meeting. Adoption of Amendment 4 would result in a 50/50 quota allocation between the commercial and recreational fishery, whereby each sector would get 266,176 pounds, a quota increase of 53,235 pounds for the recreational sector. The additional quota would reduce the risk of overages in 2025.
The current quota system and management plan is a sore spot for flounder fishermen, several of whom talked to Port City Daily last year after the Division of Marine Fisheries cancelled the 2024 flounder season. Calculations from the 2023 season indicated the recreational catch of Southern flounder exceeded the quota allowed under the stock rebuilding plan set by the state in 2022, thus requiring the excess to be subtracted from the following year.
The cancellation also caused Rep. Frank Iler (R-Brunswick) to send an open letter to NCDEQ denouncing the cancellation and the state agency’s management of the flounder fishery.
“If our DMF cannot come up with a better fishery management plan at least by 2025, perhaps we need to go to the floors of the N.C. House and Senate, hear from citizens and objective experts, and come up with a plan for them,” Iler wrote.
The commercial flounder season for internal coastal and joint fishing waters (rivers, creeks and sounds) will be announced in the coming weeks through a separate news release and proclamation.
Tips or comments? Email info@localdailymedia.com.
Want to read more from PCD? Subscribe now and then sign up for our morning newsletter, Wilmington Wire, and get the headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.
