North Carolina Coastal Habitat Plan

Case Authors

Amy Samples, Julia Wondolleck and Steven Yaffee, University of Michigan

Summary

North Carolina’s Fisheries Reform Act of 1997 mandated protection and enhancement of habitats supporting coastal fisheries and called for the creation of the Coastal Habitat Protection Plan (CHPP).

The CHPP targets North Carolina’s 2.5 million acres of water and coastal wetlands, including the Albemarle Pamlico Estuary and focuses on protection and restoration of six fish habitats (water column, shell bottom, submerged aquatic vegetation, wetlands, soft bottom, ocean hard bottom).

The state’s Environmental Management Commission, Coastal Resources Commission, Marine Fisheries Commission and Wildlife Resources Commission must cooperate to formulate and implement the CHPP and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Division of Marine Fisheries is responsible for managing the plan’s implementation.

Though the plan is clearly targeted at fisheries restoration and protection, the plan and associated actions positively impact the coastal ecosystem as a whole. The plan must be revised every five years and the next iteration is expected to address sea level rise, endocrine disruptors/ pharmaceuticals.

MEBM Attributes

Collaboration: Assignment of specific tasks in an Implementation Plan.
Adaptive Management: Revision required every 5 years (to promote adaptive management).
Complexity: Attention to six habitat types, encompassing key ecosystem characteristics.

Mission and Primary Objectives

Objectives

North Carolina’s Coastal Habitat Protection Plan was written and developed to:

Document the ecological role and function of aquatic habitats for coastal fisheries.
Provide status and trends information on the quality and quantity of coastal fish habitat.
Describe and document threats to coastal fish habitat, including threats from both human activities and natural events.
Describe the current rules concerning each habitat.
Identify management needs.
Develop options for management action using the above information.

The first five objectives are discussed for each of six habitat types (water column, shell bottom, submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), wetlands, soft bottom, ocean hard bottom), comprising the primary sections of the CHPP.

Key Parties

Lead Organizations

North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources
Division of Marine Fisheries

Key Parties

Environmental Management Commission
Coastal Resources Commission
Marine Fisheries Commission
Wildlife Resources Commission

Program Structure

Steering Committee

The North Carolina Coastal Habitat Protection Plan (CHPP) steering committee meets quarterly and is made up of two commissioners from:

Environmental Management Commission
Coastal Resources Commission
Marine Fisheries Commission
The Wildlife Resources Commission

The CHPP technical team includes agency staff from the Commissions and the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources(DENR) to actually implement the recommendations and work that is suggested in the plan.

Eastern Regional Field Officer

The Eastern Regional Field Officer for the DENR has primary responsibility for managing and overseeing implementation of the CHPP.

Because habitat protection activities benefit the state and Albemarle Pamlico National Estuary, the Albemarle Pamlico National Estuary Program (APNEP) and DENR share the cost of this position, meaning that CHPP is a state initiative that is being implemented through APNEP.

Motivations for Initiating Effort

In 1997, the North Carolina General Assembly passed the Fisheries Reform Act to both protect habitat and prevent overfishing. The law mandates protection and enhancement of habitats supporting coastal fisheries.

To guide this effort, the law requires cooperation among four rule-making commissions:

Environmental Management Commission
Coastal Resources Commission
Marine Fisheries Commission.
The Wildlife Resources Commission (recently added to this mandate).

The groups work together to develop, adopt, and implement plans to protect and restore fisheries habitats (wetlands, spawning areas, threatened and endangered species habitat, primary and secondary nursery areas, shellfish beds, submerged aquatic vegetation, and outstanding resources waters).

The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources Division of Marine Fisheries was charged with writing the Coastal Habitat Protection Plan.

Ecosystem Characteristics and Threats

The Ecosystem

The North Carolina Coastal Habitat Protection Plan (CHPP) recognizes an area covering over 2.5 million acres of water and coastal wetlands, including the largest estuarine system of any coastal state on the Eastern seaboard – the Albemarle Pamlico Estuary. The CHPP identifies six habitats as supporting North Carolina’s coastal fish and fisheries: water column, shell bottom, submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), wetlands, soft bottom, and ocean hard bottom.

Though the plan is focused on fish habitat protection, the effort is based on the understanding that fish habitats are interdependent and that alterations to any one part of the ecosystem will likely affect the whole. Generally, North Carolina’s estuarine and coastal waters are showing signs of habitat degradation and loss (lack of recovery of certain fishery species despite reduced harvest, increasing shellfish harvest closures in Outstanding Resource Waters, large number of impaired waters, frequent fish kills, and negative changes in ecosystem structure).

Threats

Threats to the ecosystem include:

Physical habitat loss or degradation
Dredging
Marinas, docks, piers
Channelization, ditching, filling
Flow regulation, obstruction
Bottom disturbing fishing gear
Shoreline hardening
Beach nourishment
Infrastructure
Mining operations
Water quality degradation
Nutrient enrichment and oxygen depletion
Toxic chemical contamination
Excessive turbidity, sedimentation
Bacterial contamination
Natural events
Boating activity
Marine debris
Introduced or nuisance species
Disease

Major Strategies

Protect Coastal Fish Habitats

Improve effectiveness of existing rules and programs protecting coastal fish habitats.
Enhance enforcement of, and compliance with, Coastal Resources Commission (CRC), Environmental Management Commission (EMC), and Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) rules and permit conditions.
Coordinate and enhance water quality, physical habitat, and fisheries resource monitoring (including data management) from headwaters to the nearshore ocean.
Enhance and expand educational outreach on the value of fish habitat, threats from human activities, effects of non-native species, and reasons for management measures.
Coordinate rulemaking and enforcement among regulatory commissions and agencies.

Identify and Protect Strategic Habitat Areas

Identify, designate and protect strategic habitat areas.
Evaluate potential Strategic Habitat Areas by coordinating, completing, and maintaining baseline habitat mapping and monitor/assess effects of land use and human activities on those habitats.
Identify and designate Strategic Habitat Areas using ecologically based criteria.
Analyze existing rules and enact measures needed to protect Strategic Habitat Areas.
Improve programs for conservation (including voluntary actions) and acquisition of areas supporting Strategic Habitat Areas.

Enhance and Protect Habitat from Physical Impacts

Greatly expand habitat restoration, including the creation of subtidal oyster reef no-take sanctuaries and the re-establishment of riparian wetlands and stream hydrology.
Prepare and implement a comprehensive beach and inlet management plan that addresses ecologically based guidelines, socio-economic concerns, and fish habitat.
Protect Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV), shell bottom, and hard bottom areas from fishing gear effects through improved enforcement, establishment of protective buffers around habitats, and further restriction of mechanical shellfish harvesting.
Protect fish habitat by revising estuarine and public trust shoreline stabilization rules using best available information, considering estuarine erosion rates, and the development and promotion of incentives for use of alternatives to vertical shoreline stabilization measures.
Protect and enhance habitat for anadromous fishes by incorporating the water quality and quantity needs of fish in surface water use planning and rule making and eliminating obstructions to fish movements, such as dams, locks, and road fills.

Enhance and Protect Water Quality

Reduce point source pollution from wastewater by increasing inspections of wastewater treatment facilities, collection infrastructure, and land disposal sites and providing incentives for upgrading all types of wastewater treatment systems.
Adopt or modify rules or statutes to prohibit ocean wastewater discharges.
Prohibit new or expanded stormwater outfalls to coastal beaches and to coastal shellfishing waters except during times of emergency when public safety and health are threatened, and continue to phase-out existing outfalls by implementing alternative stormwater management strategies.
Enhance coordination with, and financial/technical support for, local government actions to better manage stormwater and wastewater.
Improve land-based strategies throughout the river basins to reduce non-point pollution and minimize cumulative losses to wetlands and streams through voluntary actions, assistance, and incentives.
Improve land-based strategies throughout the river basins to reduce non-point pollution and minimize cumulative losses to wetlands and streams through rule making.
Consideration of erosion rates as an additional factor in the siting of structures along estuarine and public trust shorelines.
Develop and implement a comprehensive coastal marina and dock management plan and policy for the protection of shellfish harvest waters and fish habitat.
Reduce non-point source pollution from large-scale animal operations.

Monitoring, Assessment and Evaluation

The North Carolina Coastal Habitat Protection Plan (CHPP) is required by law to undergo a five-year review and revision. As such, the CHPP is currently undergoing revision and will be vetted with the four commissions and opened to public comment. The update generally includes changes to habitat management and preservation recommendations based on recent accomplishments and new research.

Since the first version of the CHPP made little mention of climate change or sea level rise, such issues will be included in the next draft. Discussions on pharmaceuticals as endocrine disruptors in the water column are also salient issues.

Accomplishments/Impact

Habitat restoration

Habitat restoration efforts include oyster bed restoration in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and various works supported through the Albemarle Pamlico National Estuary Program (APNEP) operating budget and mini-grants program. For example, APNEP sponsors a marsh construction project wherein landowners and contractors are building breakwaters and planting marsh grass to provide vital habitat, prevent erosion, and filter pollutants. The breakwaters will be low enough to withstand severe storms and maintain water quality, but high enough to protect marsh grass planted behind them and buffer eroding shorelines from destructive waves. Eventually, the marsh grass will provide additional habitat and prevent further shoreline erosion.

Habitat mapping and monitoring of shell bottoms, fish distribution, submerged aquatic vegetation, and hard bottoms are also available on the North Carolina Coastal Habitat Protection Plan (CHPP) website.

Website Links

North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources Division of Marine Fisheries website: http://www.ncfisheries.net/habitat/index.html