Issuing an Incidental Take Permit (File No. 27106) to the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries for the Incidental Take of ESA-listed Sea Turtles and Sturgeon Associated with the Otherwise Lawful Commercial Anchored Gill Net Fisheries Operating

The National Marine Fisheries Service proposes to issue an incidental take permit (ITP) to the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries (NCDMF), under section 10(a)(1)(B) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), and the regulations governing the incidental taking of endangered and threatened species (50 CFR 222.307). If issued, the ITP would authorize the incidental take, with some mortality, of endangered and threatened sea turtles and sturgeon, including the North Atlantic and South Atlantic Distinct Population Segments (DPSs) of green (Chelonia mydas), Kemp’s ridley (Lepidochelys kempii), hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), and Northwest Atlantic Ocean DPS of loggerhead (Caretta caretta) sea turtles, New York Bight, Chesapeake, Carolina, and South Atlantic DPSs of Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus), and shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum), associated with the otherwise lawful commercial fisheries operating in North Carolina (NC) internal coastal (inshore) waters using large and small-mesh anchored gill nets. The ITP would be valid for 10 years. As part of their Conservation Plan, NCDMF would continue to regulate these gill net fisheries through the fisheries rules adopted by the NC Marine Fisheries Commission and proclamations issued by the NCDMF Director. Regulations include mandatory net attendance, yardage limits, soak-time restrictions, net shot limits, net height tie-down requirements, closed areas, mesh size restrictions, minimum distance between fishing operations, marking requirements, permit mandates, and observer requirements. On December 2, 2022, NCDMF submitted a complete application for an ESA section 10(a)(1)(B) ITP, including a Conservation Plan with an adaptive management program for the operation of their commercial inshore large and small-mesh anchored gill net fisheries to further monitor, minimize, and mitigate the impacts of incidental take of sea turtles and sturgeon in these fisheries to the maximum extent practicable. On November 3, 2023, NCDMF submitted a revised application.