Attend Fisheries Meetings
Contact Your Legislators
Both the public right to fish and public fisheries resources are held in trust by the state. The public trust doctrine operates according to the same basic trust principles that govern the trust relationship between financial trustees and beneficiaries. Under those principles, the state—as trustee—owes a fiduciary duty to hold public-trust resources in trust for the benefit of the trust beneficiaries, all current and future citizens of North Carolina. The state’s trustees include your elected representatives,as such, it is important they hear from you on fisheries management issues.
There are several ways to communicate with your representatives in the Legislature - by phone call or email to their office, or by attending events where they are present in the district, or requesting a meeting at their legislative office in Raleigh or while they are in the district. Please keep in mind that our legislators are expected to address a lot of issues important to our state so be respectful of their time.
The easiest, and often fastest, way of communication is by email. While there are surely exceptions, the vast majority of legislators personally monitor their legislative email inbox. Many legislators respond at least briefly to emails that are sent, at least those that come from their personal constituents.
Watch WRAL’s Documentary “Net Effect”
“Net Effect” is a one-hour documentary that looks at some of the declining fish stocks in our state’s waters and some of the commercial fishing practices that recreational fishermen and conservation groups say is contributing to the problem. It also looks at the politics behind the Southern Flounder debate, the loopholes in how commercial fishing licenses are issued and the weaknesses in enforcement of existing fishing regulations.
