RALEIGH, N.C. - Southern flounder is critical to the fishing economy of eastern North Carolina, but its population has dwindled to dangerously low levels, despite years of efforts to reduce harvest and rebuild the fishery.

Senior Marine Scientist at the North Carolina Wildlife Federation Louis Daniel said the state's Marine Fisheries Commission has chosen its own targets for commercial fishing and dismissed science.

Daniel said North Carolina has seen little progress in creating sustainable fisheries since enacting its Fisheries Reform Act more than two decades ago.

"We don't have a recovered stock to show for after 20-some years of managing under the Fisheries Reform Act," said Daniel. "We should have been much further along - and yet we don't have a rebuilt stock in all that time."

Daniel said since that 1997 legislation, many of the fisheries coastal economies depend on have declined - in some cases by 70% to 80%.

The Marine Fisheries Commission said it's working on a new amendment to address the problem. It's expected to be up for public comment early next year.

An assessment by the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries found between 2013 and 2018, the southern flounder commercial harvest declined from 2.2 million pounds to only 900,000 pounds, and recreational harvest dropped by nearly half.

Daniel said scientific models show a 72% reduction in harvest is needed to begin rebuilding the southern flounder population. But he said he thinks competing interests often mean the data is sidelined in favor of other factors.

"We don't make our management decisions based exclusively on the science," said Daniel. "We take the science and then we reduce by social and economic factors."

Daniel also noted that beyond commercial and recreational fishing industries, complex ecosystems depend on healthy fisheries.

"Because all these fish that we're over-fishing are critical components, of a broader ecosystem that we count on - the estuary in our state," said Daniel. "There's no telling what kind of an economic engine a healthy marine resource in North Carolina could provide."

Marine fisheries scientists want the state to accurately assess southern flounder stock and implement new management policies based on scientific data.

Groups in Oregon are warning wolf poaching poses a threat, not just to the creatures targeted but to people who enjoy the outdoors.

Poaching was a big issue in 2023 and again this year, especially through poisoning.

Bethany Cotton, conservation director for nonprofit conservation organization Cascadia Wildlands, said the wolf population did not grow in 2023 for the first time since the species returned to the state and a high rate of deaths has continued in 2024, largely caused by humans.

In May, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife started warning recreationists to keep their dogs on leashes because of potential exposure to poisoning meant to illegally kill wolves.

Cotton noted she decided against visiting eastern Oregon because of it.

"I have two rescue dogs, and I was invited to some friends' property out there and to spend some time out there this summer and I chose not to go," Cotton recounted. "Because it's too high a risk to go camp or hike in that part of the state right now knowing that this is happening."

Cotton acknowledged the investigation into a wolf's death takes time but poisonings are indiscriminate. In February, a poisoned cow carcass in Hells Canyon National Recreation Area killed three wolves, two golden eagles, a mountain lion and a coyote. The poaching led to the Department of Fish and Wildlife's May warning. The wolf count was 178 at the end of 2023.

Groups have banded together to take on poachers with the Turn-In-Poachers program. The collaboration is between O-D-F-W, the Oregon State Police, the Oregon Hunters Association, the Oregon Wildlife Coalition, the Oregon Outfitter and Guides Association and the Oregon State Marine Board. Rewards have been offered for tips on poachers but have not led to any arrests or convictions.

Cotton wants to see the silence around poaching events broken.

"We really do hope that those with knowledge about this poisoning incidents or future poisonings will come forward because of the possibility and the reality that it impacts far more than wolves," Cotton emphasized. "It impacts lots of other species and has impacted dogs and very likely will again in the future."

Cotton added healthy wolf populations are good for humans, including controlling diseases like chronic wasting disease in deer and elk and reducing vehicular accidents with deer.

"They bring a lot of benefits to the landscape," Cotton stressed. "It's been a huge success story that wolves naturally recolonized Oregon after having been absent for so many decades, and we just need to really learn to coexist with them like humans and wolves did for millennia."

A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision could affect public lands and wildlife in places like Wyoming.

In June, the nation's highest court overturned a nearly 40-year-old practice known as Chevron deference, which said when it comes to interpreting a vague law, courts should defer to agency expertise instead of interpreting the law themselves.

The practice has given agencies like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees endangered species, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management flexibility in making decisions on how a vague law plays out. The new decision tilts the scales, giving courts the final say on ambiguous statutes.

Sam Kalen, professor of law at the University of Wyoming, said the decision is far-reaching.

"That means there's going to be more power, more ability of a court to potentially do something that is, you know, against the entire purpose, if you will, even of the Endangered Species Act," Kalen explained.

In the court's majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote Chevron kept judges from judging. In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan said it supported "regulatory efforts of all kinds," including those keeping "air and water clean, food and drugs safe, and financial markets honest."

Over the span of four decades, 70 U.S. Supreme Court decisions and 17,000 lower court decisions have invoked Chevron. Kalen noted the new decision could upset old ones.

"What we have seen in the last, I would say, couple of months is a lot of instances where parties are trying to now reargue issues where Chevron was used as a framework in the past," Kalen observed. "To me, that could be significant."

He added it is too soon to tell if revisiting old court decisions will become a trend.


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Beluga whales are known as the "canaries of the sea" for their melodious songs but conservation groups are concerned one pod in Alaska could be rendered silent.

Belugas have lived in the Cook Inlet near Anchorage for centuries but because of a deteriorating environment, they are now on the federal Endangered Species list.

Ragen Davey, Alaska marine representative for Defenders of Wildlife, said the population of the extremely social and vocal Cook Inlet belugas has alarmingly decreased by about 80% since the 1970s.

"They stay in Cook Inlet all year round," Davey explained. "They live under the ice for parts of it. There's so many different threats that are affecting them. The three main ones are noise pollution, water pollution and prey availability."

Davey noted the Beluga whales are experiencing a variety of threats not endangering other whale populations in Alaskan waters. She pointed out their territory in the Cook Inlet is right outside one of the most developed areas of the state.

While orcas and polar bears are the belugas' natural predators, Davey emphasized water pollution and a diminishing salmon population account for much of their decline. And although by law they are no longer hunted by humans, the trappings of modern-day civilization also weigh on their survival.

"When feeding, belugas use echolocation to find food," Davey added. "Parts of their habitat are in a lot of the most developed parts of the state in Cook Inlet, so commercial ships and machinery noise can really impact the whales when they're trying to find food and talk with each other."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Alaska Beluga Monitoring Program trains volunteer citizen observers to monitor the whales at various points along the inlet and report their findings. Davey stressed the extra eyes are needed to count them and keep tabs on the species' progress.

"I really encourage Alaska residents to sign up to volunteer for the monitoring program," Davey urged. "The more people that understand what this population is enduring, the more people that are able to join in on the recovery."