RALEIGH, N.C. — A longtime coastal regulator is moving over to lead the state agency that manages North Carolina’s saltwater fish and shellfish.
The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality has picked Jonathan Howell as the next director of its Division of Marine Fisheries. He starts Oct. 26.
Howell fills a post left open since Aug. 1, when Kathy Rawls retired. In the meantime, the division’s No. 2, Mike Loeffler, has been running things as acting chief. DEQ Secretary Reid Wilson praised Howell as a proven leader with deep ties to the coast and thanked both Loeffler and Rawls for their work.
Howell has spent more than two decades in state service, all of it with the Division of Coastal Management. He joined as a planner in 2004, later handled major permits, ran the Washington district office and led the regulatory section, then moved up to deputy director in January 2025. His schooling includes an undergraduate business degree at Mount Olive College and graduate work in environmental planning at East Carolina University, where he earned a master’s.
In a statement, Howell said fisheries are tied to coastal livelihoods and family traditions, and that he plans to start by listening to the people the division serves.
The job carries wide reach. The division oversees marine and estuarine resources across all of the state’s coastal waters out to 3 miles offshore, and its rules come from the DEQ secretary along with the nine-member Marine Fisheries Commission. The state also sits on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and both the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic fishery management councils. The division is currently taking public input through Oct. 30 on fishery issues and possible management strategies.
Filed under: Raleigh NC Fishing News
More coverage: Raleigh NC fishing