Wake Superior Court rules state failed to protect coastal fisheries

By Outer Banks Voice on August 19, 2026

This statement announcing and lauding the court’s decision was issued by the Coastal Conservation Association on Aug. 18.

The Wake County Superior Court has ruled in favor of the Coastal Conservation Association of North Carolina (“CCA NC”) and 86 individual citizens in their lawsuit to hold the State accountable for failing to protect North Carolina’s coastal fisheries.

The Court’s 190-page ruling, which followed a six-week trial earlier this year, held the State liable based on “overwhelming evidence” that the State breached its legal obligations to North Carolina citizens. Further proceedings addressing remedies needed to cure the State’s management failures and restore North Carolina’s once-abundant coastal fisheries are expected to follow.

The lawsuit was filed in 2020 by CCA NC and 86 citizen plaintiffs, including 5 former members of North Carolina’s Marine Fisheries Commission. Through six years of hard-fought litigation, CCA NC was able to prove that by allowing North Carolina’s coastal fisheries to deteriorate and collapse, the State violated the legal rights of North Carolinians to fish and harvest fish—rights guaranteed to them under the public-trust doctrine and the North Carolina Constitution.

The six years of litigation included proceedings before the Court of Appeals, which unanimously ruled in favor of CCA NC and the individual plaintiffs in 2022. In the Wake County Superior Court’s ruling yesterday, the Court applied that decision as binding precedent, finding that the extensive evidence at trial, including comprehensive expert testimony, “overwhelmingly established” that the State has failed to meet those standards.

CCA NC Executive Director David Sneed praised the Court’s ruling as “an opportunity,” He added that “With this ruling, we are calling on the general public, our elected officials, our scientific community, and state fisheries managers to join together with us, roll up our sleeves, and commit to doing the hard work necessary to restore our coastal fisheries resources for the benefit of all citizens and future generations.”

In a separate statement, Tim Gestwicki, CEO of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation said “North Carolinians have paid the price for decades of ineffective fisheries management. We have watched fishing opportunities disappear and once-abundant stocks decline while the state continued to permit unnecessary waste of the very resources it is obligated to protect. In this ruling, the court recognizes that the state cannot use a lack of adequate data as an excuse for failing to protect our fisheries. Collecting the information necessary to understand the health of these public resources is a fundamental part of responsible fisheries management.”