I TIME STAMP… 25 YEARS AGO. IN 2001 I BEGAN MY RELATIONSHIP WITH WADE WATANABE AT UNCW AND HARRY DANIELS WITH NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY REGARDING THE NEED FOR A FLOUNDER HATCHERY SYSTEM IN NORTH CAROLINA.
Update… 2026. The NCDMF is now looking for an advisory panel for solutions regarding southern flounder stocks that are supposedly depleted. DMF is actively pursuing people with knowledge regarding Southern Flounder that could help with the current situation.
I’ve had more than a dozen request from friends asking me to participate in this panel of “experts” to possibly guide NCDMF towards solutions regarding our current debacle with Southern Flounder in North Carolina State Waters.
I said many years ago that if you ever saw me in another NC fisheries meeting, take a photograph because that’s not me. I refuse to ever get back into this INCESTUOUS/CORRUPT d en of vipers who regulate our fisheries management here in North Carolina.
You can write down that I said this… North Carolina fisheries management along with our federal fisheries management regulators are bought and paid for. PERIOD. They do not have the will of the people in mind. They only have their own financial well-being and political advancement in mind and do as they are told. These people are corrupt to the core and Southern Flounder here in North Carolina is the poster child of this exact statement. We laid out all the evidence and numbers many years ago to Louis Daniels and his staff. They smiled, acted very cordial and looked as if they were in agreement when person to person, but would never give us the time of day for any meaningful cooperation for a hatchery advancement. And it was like pulling hen’s teeth to get cooperation for artificial reef deployment on nearshore reefs where the spawning of Southern Flounder occur.
All we were asking for back then, was to allow us to use our recreational fishing license monies for the EXISTING hatchery to produce millions and millions of 90 mm fingerlings to release into the western creeks along the Intracoastal waterway throughout the state. This would have created a flounder carpet throughout the state of North Carolina many years ago.
I realize I don’t have a PhD, nor do I have fisheries management experience, however, I have been fishing for many decades now and I saw what was possible with Wade Watanabe at UNCW and Harry Daniels at North Carolina State University. These two gentlemen along with John Miller, who was the director of zoology at North Carolina State university (Literally) wrote the book of stock enhancement potential of Southern Flounder in North Carolina. You should look up this book up read it, you’ll understand what they said way back then as it relates to our current situation.
We held the “Flat Bottom Girls Flounder Tournament” The first week of November for 15 years. We only accepted prizes for a live Flounder and we gave all these fish to UNCW and NCSU. The reason the tournament was held in November is because the females start to migrate out the inlets to the nearshore structure (where they were born) to spawn. The term “Flat Bottom Girls” is a play on the old Queen song but is reflective of only large flounder are female. Male flounder only grow to a maximum of 15 inches or so.
The research associates at these two universities under the guidance of Wade Watanabe and Harry Daniels trained the rest of the United States and Japan, on how to grow Southern Flounder fingerlings in hatchery environments. They used water temperatures and lighting manipulation to spawn these fish twice a year instead of once as in nature Texas, along with many other Southern states, sent their research associates to Wrightsville Beach and Raleigh to study under Harry and Wade . It’s more than telling to me, and anyone looking at the facts of this situation, why it can be promoted and utilized in many other states and Japan, but not North Carolina where the research originated and was perfected.
I think it’s time for North Carolina citizens to realize how badly our politicians and fisheries management officials have hoodwinked us in the past. FIRE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM, and start from scratch with common sense (problem solving ALPHA MALES) at the helm that are not concerned about what people think of them or their personal political advancement to run the agencies regarding fisheries management.
It’s time for North Carolina to be proactive rather than reactive in our fisheries management. We produced the evidence and facts a long time ago, and now it’s time to bring it all to fruition Bring a hatchery system online to manage several of our “depleted stocks”.
This is just one part of the equation. First and foremost, show me the data that you have collected that would indicate stocks are depleted… and not just state waters, this is federal fisheries management also. I am specifically speaking about Gag Grouper, and American Red Snapper now.
I know this is a whole other story, but I’ll leave you with this statement… State and federal fisheries management agencies are not on our team as commercial and/ or recreational fisherman.
They are bought and paid for (non-elected agencies) and do as they are told in order for the people at the very top to benefit, and we must endure the pain.
Enough is enough!!! GROW SOME STONES… stand up and tell your political representatives that you’re not going to take it anymore. Remember… THEY WORK FOR US!
Thank you for your attention to this matter.