North Carolina lawmakers kept a ban on shrimp trawling from advancing in the General Assembly.
What's happening?
The House of Representatives on June 25 declined to hear Bill 442, which would have prohibited the practice within a half-mile of the coast, the Island Free Press reported. The legislation had passed the Senate but was derided by shrimpers and the fishing industry.
Commercial anglers said 75% of their shrimp is harvested in the area that would have become off-limits, WUNC noted. In 2023, the state issued 270 licenses to shrimpers, who caught 6.5 million pounds of the crustaceans. The haul was valued at $14.1 million.
Bill 442 would have lengthened the southern flounder and red snapper seasons, but an amendment added the ban, making it untenable for those who make their living in the field.
Why is this important?
Conservationists argue that a shrimp trawling ban would protect marine life and ecosystems from the heavy nets that can disrupt the ocean floor. Shrimpers also catch fish and other animals, including the endangered loggerhead sea turtle, that they don't want. These creatures often die in fishing nets and other gear.
Overfishing is also a concern. Fishers, on the other hand, say that advancements in equipment and changes in practices — notably, using nets with turtle excluder devices and keeping nets off the seabed — have made their jobs safer for wildlife and that the industry is already heavily regulated, as The News & Observer reported.
Changes by the Senate to House Bill 442 and HB 441, which would have compensated shrimpers for the ban, were made "without warning or consultation with the bill's original primary sponsors [and] ignited backlash from across the political spectrum," the Free Press stated.
What's being done about shrimp trawling in North Carolina?
The shrimp trawling legislation could be taken up again in the future, but the General Assembly is now on its summer break.
WUNC pointed out that biologists say the flounder and snapper populations are "too small to sustain themselves and could collapse" and that the ban would have benefited hundreds of thousands of recreational fishers.
In general, fishing laws and conservation efforts ensure human actions don't irreparably harm the environment, although there are costs. The News & Observer said there are fewer than 300 shrimpers in North Carolina, less than a third of how many operated in the 1990s.
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Yes 💯 "The Senate passed a good provision," Sen. Phil Berger said, per Island Free Press. "It's our position that continuing to allow trawling in inland waters is detrimental to the state overall [and] detrimental to our aquatic fish population. We're the only state on the East Coast or the Gulf Coast that allows that kind of net fishing in the inland waters, and it's time for us to change that."
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