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Division extends spotted seatrout closure after statewide January cold-stun event
Summary
After a January 2025 cold-stun event confirmed fish kills from Tyrrell to Onslow counties, the Division issued a closure and later extended it through June 30; staff will analyze kill counts, logger data and post-event abundance before recommending any additional adaptive measures.
The Division of Marine Fisheries closed the spotted sea trout recreational fishery after a cold-stun event in January 2025 that produced confirmed fish kills and logger data showing temperatures below biological thresholds across a wide area of the coast.
Event and response: Lucas Pensinger, the division’s spotted sea trout biologist, said initial cold-stun reports began Jan. 13 and by Jan. 22 the division had documented confirmed cold kills and low-temperature readings at logger stations from Tyrrell County to New Hanover County. Director Rawls issued a proclamation on Jan. 22 to close the spotted sea trout fishery; that closure was extended through June 30 by a later proclamation.
How the division evaluates cold stuns: Pensinger described the division’s protocol, which looks at confirmed kill reports (division uses 25 dead fish as a practical threshold), the geographic extent of kills, and water-temperature triggers — for example, sustained water temperatures below 41°F for eight consecutive days or below 34.7°F for 24 hours are associated with high mortality. The division uses roughly 75 loggers at winter-habitat stations that record readings every 15 minutes.
Next steps: staff are compiling a final cold-stun report with detailed analyses of confirmed dead counts, temperature trends and post-event abundance and age/length distributions. That report will be included in materials for the commission’s February 2026 meeting; division staff said they will recommend any needed adaptive measures only after analysis.
Other agency action: the Wildlife Resources Commission aligned its separate recreational closure in inland and joint waters with the division’s closure.
The division emphasized it is still in the data-gathering stage and will act only after analysis and consideration of stock condition, independent sampling and potential management options.
