A ban on inshore shrimp trawling is moving quickly toward a vote in the North Carolina Senate.
On Tuesday morning, the provision was inserted into House Bill 442, which deals with recreational fishing of flounder and red snapper. It's scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon.
It would outlaw shrimp trawling except in Atlantic Ocean waters at least a half-mile offshore, matching regulations in Virginia and South Carolina.
"We're the only state on the East Coast that allows that," Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, told reporters late Tuesday, saying the issue has "needed attention for a long time."
Commercial shrimpers say their industry would be decimated.
"Shrimping is the lifeblood of a lot of counties," commercial fisherman Thomas Newman said during the Senate Rules Committee meeting Tuesday. "You're going to cut off 75% of the shrimp we produce."
The state awarded 270 commercial shrimp licenses in 2023. Those shrimpers hauled in over 6.5 million pounds of shrimp, worth an estimated $14.1 million, according to Division of Marine Fisheries statistics.
Around half of those shrimp were landed in the Pamlico Sound, the same report says, and that's been the case since 1994.
Bycatch an issue
Sen. David W. Craven Jr., R-Randolph, said changes are needed because so many fish species get unintentionally caught in shrimp nets.
"It is estimated that for every pound we harvest of shrimp, 4 pounds of bycatch — which is a lot of other species of fish that's getting caught in the net, potentially dying," Craven said during a meeting of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Energy and Environment, where he introduced the amendment.
Trawlers drag large nets behind their boats that can drag the bottom in the state's typically shallow estuaries, disrupting habitats and trapping fish that grow up there.
Croaker, spot, weakfish and flounder "are of particular concern due to their value as economically important recreation and commercial fisheries, as well as concern about their stock status," the state's shrimp management plan states.
Federally protected species like sea turtles and sturgeon are also vulnerable, research shows.
"This is just an archaic thing that we have allowed to happen," said Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick. "It's going to take a lot of fortitude for people to stand up and say: 'I really, I don't like it, but it is the best policy.' And at the end of the day, our challenge here is good policy, not friendships and friends at home."
Several nonprofits back the decision.
"If our fishery stocks respond favorably to these new protections, the potential economic impact to Eastern North Carolina will be tremendous," said Chad Thomas, executive director of the state's Marine & Estuary Foundation.
Republicans split
Adding the shrimping provision in the last two weeks of this year's planned session surprised some Republicans.
Sen. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, called it "disgraceful" and said it would "completely shut down an entire industry."
"It reeks of the same old sleazy backroom politics and special interests that caused North Carolina endless fish wars," Hanig said. "What we're doing here is wrong."
Most Senate Republicans quickly got behind it, and the amended bill is scheduled for a vote during the Senate's 4 p.m. session Wednesday. Berger said he expects it to pass.
Whether it can pass the House is another question.
"Historically, coastal members don't like those sorts of regulations, so I don't know," House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, told reporters. "We'll see what happens when the Senate bill gets over here."
Democratic Gov. Josh Stein did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The bill would also mandate six-week recreational fishing seasons for southern flounder and red snapper through 2029. Both species had extremely short seasons in 2024 because they are considered overfished, meaning the population is too small to sustain itself and could collapse.
It passed the House 77-35 in May, but would require another vote because of the shrimp trawling amendment.
