By Connie Leinbach
A cheer went up in the hallways of the N.C. State Legislative Building in Raleigh when members of the House Rules Committee emerged around 3 p.m. this afternoon from their caucus on the shrimp trawling ban in HB 442 and announced they would not move the bill.
Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, who was at the capitol building bird-dogging the situation, confirmed the news and the cheering.
“The announcement was simply, the house caucus has decided that it will not take up the bill this session,” he said. While the bill is still there, when bills go to the Rules Committee it’s typically a death knell.
The announcement followed yesterday’s intense lobbying of the legislature by hundreds of shrimpers, seafood workers and others, who descended on the capital to protest this bill that could have drastically reduced, if not ended, the North Carolina shrimp industry.
“I’ve never seen anything like yesterday,” Phillips said about the raucous truckers. Many of the protesters on Wednesday continued to mill around the Legislative Building.
Islander Susie O’Neal, manager of Ocracoke Seafood Company, made the trip to Raleigh on Tuesday and was among the protesters.
“Thank goodness!” she said on Wednesday after hearing the news of the bill’s dormancy. “But they won’t stop trying,” she said about the groups wishing to ban shrimp trawling. “We have to stay vigilant and keep the information (about these efforts) out there.”
House Bill 442 originally sought to expand the commercial and recreational fishing season for flounder and red snapper, which was widely praised.
In the Senate, an amendment to prohibit shrimp trawling within a half mile of North Carolina’s coast was tacked on before the June 17 committee vote.
Facing limited opposition in the Senate, the revised bill passed and which, if it had been put to a vote in the House would possibly have ended the shrimping industry.
But Phillips said on Wednesday that a number of House Republicans came out against the bill, ensuring that it wouldn’t move forward.
