Is This Where You Fish? 5 Most Alligator Filled Rivers In North Carolina

 They are concentrated in the southern coastal region, near the lower Cape Fear River Basin, the Black River, and the Alligator River.

Source: WorldAtlas

 https://search.app/U2eUX

Best Saltwater Fishing Towns in the South - Catch spotted seatrout, redfish, flounder and more at these coastal cities.

 

From Game & Fish Online

From the Gulf to the Atlantic, you’ll find opportunities to fill the shortening days will memorable moments and tackle-testing adventures; many of which will deliver fresh seafood dinners.

https://www.gameandfishmag.com/editorial/best-saltwater-fishing-cities-south/540116

Lobster Mini Season (Florida): All You Need to Know

 Love this from Boat Setter. 

Lobster Mini Season, officially known as the Florida spiny lobster sport season, is a beloved two-day event that draws thousands of lobster enthusiasts to the Florida Keys and beyond... 

 ...  https://www.boatsetter.com/boating-resources/lobster-mini-season

Flounder... The Last Word?

 Will there be a 2025 recreational flounder fishing season in NC? https://share.google/WywTD8UO5sTp2H5tM

10 Mistakes Boaters Make in NC That Get Them Tickets

North Carolina’s waterways are beautiful, but they come with rules that can trip up even seasoned captains. Here are the top 10 mistakes boaters often make in NC that can lead to tickets or worse:

⚓ 1. Operating Without a Boater Education Card  

Anyone born on or after January 1, 1988 must carry proof of boater education when operating a vessel with a motor of 10 HP or more.

🚨 2. Not Having Enough Life Jackets  

You need one U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket per person onboard — and kids under 13 must wear them at all times while underway.

🛥️ 3. Speeding in No-Wake Zones  

Blasting through marinas or near docks at full throttle is a surefire way to get flagged down by wildlife officers.

🍻 4. Boating Under the Influence (BUI)  

Just like driving, boating while impaired is illegal. NC has strict BUI laws, and penalties can include jail time and loss of boating privileges.

🔦 5. Missing Required Safety Equipment  

This includes fire extinguishers, navigation lights, sound-producing devices (like a whistle or horn), and a throwable flotation device.

📜 6. Not Registering or Displaying Numbers Properly  

Your boat must be registered with visible numbers and decals. Faded, missing, or improperly placed numbers can lead to fines.

🧭 7. Ignoring Navigation Rules  

Failing to yield, cutting across channels, or not knowing “Red Right Returning” can cause accidents — and citations.

📵 8. No Engine Cut-Off Switch (ECOS)  

Federal law requires an ECOS on certain boats. Not using it when required can result in a ticket.

🌊 9. Overloading the Boat  

Exceeding the boat’s capacity plate (by weight or passengers) is dangerous and illegal.

📋 10. Not Filing a Float Plan or Checking Weather  

While not always ticketed, heading out without telling someone your plan or ignoring weather advisories can lead to search-and-rescue situations — and scrutiny from authorities.

North Carolina Offshore Drilling - HELP

 North Carolina’s 300-mile coast is an environmental and economic powerhouse — supporting vibrant tourism, commercial fishing, and unique marine ecosystems. Yet federal plans to expand offshore oil and gas drilling put all of that at risk.

What’s Happening:

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is developing the 2024-2029 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, which outlines proposed offshore lease sales over five years. They are currently seeking public input to help shape the final version of the program. If North Carolina is included in their plan, this could allow dangerous drilling and seismic testing in our waters — threatening wildlife, tourism, fisheries, and coastal communities.

How You Can Help: BOEM is taking public comments through June 16. Speak out today to protect our coast! You can comment:

Online: Go here, and click “Comment” to write your message,

or by mail: in an envelope labeled “Comments for the 11th National OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program” and send to: Ms. Kelly Hammerle, BOEM 45600 Woodland Road, Sterling, VA 20166-9216

Key Messages & Supporting Facts:

A Thriving Yet Fragile Coastal Economy

NC’s coastal tourism industry generated over $6.8 billion in 2023, supporting over 30,000 jobs. Commercial and recreational fishing added $2.5 billion in 2022 and tens of thousands of jobs. Offshore drilling could permanently damage this economy through spills and industrialization.

Offshore Drilling is Devastating to Marine Life

Seismic blasting used to locate oil deposits can harm or kill marine life — including fish, zooplankton (the base of the food web), and up to 138,000 marine mammals, per BOEM’s own data. Drilling infrastructure threatens nesting sea turtles, migrating whales, and vital fish nurseries like the Pamlico/Albemarle Estuary — the second-largest estuarine system in the continental U.S.

Critical Habitat is at Stake

The coast is now part of protected habitat for the endangered North Atlantic right whale — as of 2024, fewer than 370 remained worldwide. Drilling could also impact the biologically rich waters off Cape Hatteras, where the Gulf Stream and Labrador Current meet.

Spills are Inevitable — and Expensive

“When you drill, you spill.” The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster cost $65 billion in damages — more than NC’s annual state budget. Even small, routine spills and toxic discharge harm ecosystems and erode public trust in coastal safety.

Minimal Energy, Massive Risk

The Atlantic holds only 0.5% of the world’s oil — and would supply just 36 days of U.S. demand. Drilling would not lower gas prices meaningfully — the EIA estimates just a 3-cent decrease by 2030 if all offshore areas are opened.

Coastal Communities Overwhelmingly Oppose Drilling

Over 200 local governments on the East Coast, including 46 in NC, have formally opposed offshore drilling. Ports like Wilmington, Morehead City, and even the U.S. military and NASA have raised concerns.

Your Voice Matters!

This is a forever decision — once drilling starts, it will continue for decades. Speak up now to protect North Carolina’s waters, wildlife, and way of life.

Submit your comment by June 16 and tell BOEM:

No offshore drilling. No seismic blasting. Not here. Not now. Not ever.

Learn more, here.

 

 

Marine Fisheries to Implement Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact

 

Marine Fisheries to Implement Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact
Contact:  Patricia Smith
Phone: 252-515-5500

MOREHEAD CITY – Starting July 1, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries will implement requirements of the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact Act ("Act") for marine and estuarine fisheries violations, as directed by the N.C. General Assembly. The Act provides reciprocal recognition of license suspensions with participating states.

Proposed rules were adopted by the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission in March 2025 and approved by the Rules Review Commission in May 2025. The rules will apply to marine and estuarine fisheries violations committed in North Carolina or any other participating state starting July 1, 2025.

In its definition of "wildlife," the Act includes all species of animals the Commission and the Division protect and regulate. The Act provides enhanced flexibility for fair and impartial treatment of non-residents with wildlife resources violations, including fishing violations. The adoption of these rules allows the Division to hold wildlife violators accountable and treat them the same, regardless of their state residency.

Text of the rules can be found in the June 1, 2025, Supplement to the 2020 N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission Rulebook at https://deq.nc.gov/DMF-Rules.

For questions about these rules, email Catherine Blum, rules coordinator for the Division of Marine Fisheries.

For More Information 

Upriver Cape Fear plant releases high levels of 1,4-dioxane

  02/14/2025 by Trista Talton  - Reprinted from CoastalReview.org

NCDEQ A city-operated wastewater treatment plant in Randolph County discharged substantially high levels of 1,4-dioxane last month into a tributary of the Cape Fear River, the drinking water supply for about 1 million North Carolinians. Several downstream businesses and water utilities, including Cape Fear Public Utility Authority in Wilmington and Pender County Utilities, were recently notified that the state “grab samples” collected Jan. 24 at Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant returned a final concentration of 2,200 parts per billion, or ppb. 

The plants own grab sample, which was collected the same day, detected a concentration of 3,520 ppb, according to North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources, or DWR. Grab samples are taken at a single point in time. The federal drinking water health advisory level is 0.35 ppb for 1,4-dioxane, which the Environmental Protection Agency categorizes as a likely human carcinogen. “After the initial analysis of the samples, DWR completed quality assurance and control measures to validate the results,” a DEQ release states. “DEQ, using EPA toxicity calculations for lifetime exposure, has determined that the average monthly 1,4-dioxane concentration protective of downstream water supplies is about 22 ppb for the Asheboro discharge.” The chemical compound is used primarily as a solvent in chemical manufacturing. DWR’s Jan. 28 notice to downstream drinking water utilities and businesses comes just months after a state chief administrative law judge last September revoked 1,4-dixoane limits included in Asheboro’s discharge permit. 

DEQ appealed Judge and Office of Administrative Hearings Director Donald van der Vaart’s decision in Wake County Superior Court. The court has not yet ruled on the appeal. As it awaits a ruling, DEQ is on a timetable set by the EPA to reissue Asheboro’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit and restrict how much 1,4-dioxane it’s wastewater treatment plant may discharge into surface waters. The federal agency gave the department a 90-day window to submit a proposed revised permit. NCDEQ graphic illustrates Asheboro Wastewater Treatment Plant monthly average of facility grab samples. DEQ or “any interested person” may request a public hearing on the EPA’s objection to the permit within those 90 days. 

If that request is not made and DEQ does not meet the deadline, “exclusive authority to issue the permit passes to the EPA” in accordance with the code of federal regulations, according to the letter. It is unclear whether the EPA under President Donald Trump will move forward with that mandate. Trump’s executive order that freezes new regulations prompted the Office of Management and Budget to withdraw a federal rule that would require per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, manufacturers to monitor and reduce discharges into surface waters under the Clean Water Act. The elevated levels of 1,4-dioxane recorded last month were found in discharge from the treatment plant to Hasketts Creek, which empties into the Deep River within the Cape Fear River Basin. 

“DEQ continues to sample at municipal wastewater treatment plants and in surface waters across the Cape Fear River Basin to identify 1,4-dioxane sources,” Laura Oleniacz, DWR public information officer, said in an email. “In addition, DEQ continues to assist municipalities to minimize or reduce 1,4-dioxane coming from industrial wastewater. DEQ is also exploring other avenues for protecting drinking water.” The agency “agrees with EPA that limits are necessary to protect North Carolinians,” she said. There have been “significant reductions” at some wastewater treatment plants in what DEQ says has been a collaborative effort between the agency, Environmental Management Commission and municipal operators. Residents, local governments and water utilities in the Cape Fear Region have been pushing for tighter limits of 1,4-dixoane and PFAS releases from upstream dischargers. Proponents for such limits argue that the dischargers should bear the brunt of responsibility in keeping these synthetic compounds out of drinking water sources. “The primary means to achieve health-based levels is to reduce and minimize the release of the contaminant at the sources,” DEQ stated in a Feb. 7 release. “Industrial best management practices and treatment technologies exist to achieve these outcomes that protect North Carolinians’ drinking water sources.” Last November, the Cape Fear utility’s executive director petitioned DWR Director Richard Rogers and Environmental Management Commission Chair J.D. Solomon to begin emergency rulemaking to limit 1,4-dioxane discharges upstream. The petition was returned to the utility later that same month with Rogers stating it lacked appropriate text for a proposed emergency rule. The utility has not taken further action on the matter. In an email responding to questions Wednesday, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Director of Communications Vaughn Hagerty said utility staff had “been monitoring the situation since we received notification” from DEQ regarding the elevated 1,4-dioxane discharge levels from the Asheboro plant. The utility’s Sweeney Water Treatment Plant treats raw water from the Cape Fear River. “Treatment technologies at Sweeney, specifically ozonation and biological filtration, are very effective at removing 1,4-dixoane,” Hagerty said. Additional information about Sweeney’s treatment of 1,4-dioxane and other compounds is available online. DWR’s Cape Fear River Basin 1,4-dioxance wastewater discharge data is available online.