By Connie Leinbach
The N.C. Senate on Thursday, after a third reading, passed House Bill 442 that includes an amendment to ban shrimp trawling in the Pamlico Sound.
The measure then went to the N.C. House.
If the House concurs with the Senate’s changes and it is signed by Gov. Josh Stein, fresh shrimp from the Pamlico Sound would be a thing of the past.
Hyde County Manager Kris Noble told members of the OCBA board June 17 about this amendment that bans shrimp trawling in all inshore waters and a half mile off the beach.
“This new restriction would essentially wipe out the North Carolina shrimp industry,” Noble said.
The original bill would expand recreational fishing for flounder from four days to at least six weeks, with a limit of one fish per person per day. It would also allow a year-round red snapper season, with a limit of two fish per person per day and a 20-inch minimum size limit in state waters.
According to reporting by the Raleigh News & Observer, earlier this week, Sen. David Craven, a Republican from Randolph County, introduced an amendment that would prohibit shrimp trawling indefinitely in inshore waters, including sounds, and within a half mile of the ocean shore starting Dec. 1.
Craven said the ban would align North Carolina’s trawling regulations with those of Virginia and South Carolina and reduce bycatch.
Thomas Newman, a full-time commercial fisherman who works with the North Carolina Fisheries Association, predicted that the ban would put some shrimpers out of business.
Many boats used by North Carolina’s commercial shrimpers are not large enough to work in the Atlantic Ocean, he said.
Preventing commercial shrimpers from working in the sounds and inshore waters would result in a 75% decrease in the total shrimp catch each year, he added.
There were fewer than 300 commercial shrimpers in North Carolina in 2023, according to a 2024 report from the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.
In 2023, more than 2.3 million pounds of brown shrimp alone was caught just in the Pamlico Sound, the Division of Marine Fisheries report shows. That’s in addition to the 287,000 pounds of brown shrimp caught in other sounds, rivers and inland waterways, and doesn’t include the amount of white or pink shrimp caught.
As for what happens next, the House might wait until next week to debate the bill again, Noble said about the process, as told to her by Hyde County lobbyist Bob Steinberg, a former N.C. senator.
If the House debates the bill, they cannot further amend it.
Or they might delay voting on the measure until they come back into session in September after summer recess in the hopes that the two studies commissioned by the General Assembly on the impacts of shrimping are complete and reviewed, Noble said.
The NC General Assembly is expected to recess before July 4.
Over the summer, House members will still be checking their email, Noble said, and she encouraged those interested to voice their concerns to House members.
According to Noble, the N.C. House will have two options:
- To concur, which would mean approval of HB442 as amended, at which point it will go to Gov. Stein. The only chance for a veto from the governor is if Democrats have supported it or have concurred.
- Not to concur, which would be a no vote for HB442. This would require 61 votes. At that point the bill will go to conference. Conferees would be selected by the Speaker of the House and the Senate Pro Tempore.
Once in conference, if the Senate and House can come to an agreement, it will go to vote in both chambers. With approval by both chambers it will then subsequently go to the Governor. If the Senate and the House do not come to an agreement, the bill dies.
Noble and the Hyde County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday whipped up a resolution against the bill and sent it to Senator Phil Berger, president pro tempore of the Senate. She said commissioners from Pamlico, Carteret and Dare counties sent resolutions.
She said hundreds of commercial fishermen and even Blue Crab representatives went to Raleigh on Wednesday, but to no avail.
The Senate vote on Wednesday was 41 to 4 in favor and on Thursday, it passed 39 to 2.
“Red Snapper and Flounder bill is a good bill, and the recreational and commercial fishing industries worked together on it,” Noble told the waterways members. “The Senate tacked on a shrimp trawl ban.”
In her email to Berger, Noble said Hyde’s economy would be greatly harmed.
“The shrimp trawling industry coupled with farming are the two main industries in Hyde County and this bill would devastate us economically and socially,” she wrote.
Noble further said that the amendment was endorsed by inaccurate statements on the harms of shrimp trawling to the recreational catching of Red Snapper and Flounder.
“North Carolina has highly regulated fisheries and our stocks are healthy,” she said. “The Pamlico Sound is a vibrant estuary filled with abundant stocks. These claims against trawling are unsupported by science and, in my opinion as a lifetime resident of Hyde County, are a mechanism to commandeer resources that belong to the people of this great state, not one user group.”
The resolution urges the General Assembly to reject this amendment and “engage with fishermen, scientists, and coastal leaders before advancing any measure that would cripple a historic and sustainable fishery.”
Accusations of underwater landscape damage by shrimping are being made by the Coastal Conservation Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to marine conservation, particularly focused on recreational anglers’ interests, and the N.C. Wildlife Federation.
