Advocates and businesses of the shrimping and seafood industry gathered at the North Carolina Legislative Building to protest a proposed ban on inland trawling. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)
North Carolina fishermen abandoned their boats on Tuesday to walk the halls of the General Assembly and voice strong opposition to legislation that would ban inland shrimp trawling. House Bill 442, passed by the Senate last week, would prohibit trawlers from using their nets for shrimping in all inshore waters and within a half mile of the coast.
The original bill passed by the House in May dealt with strengthening the state’s flounder and red snapper stocks by regulating the harvest season and the number of fish that could be taken. The measure, however, was rewritten to address the shrimp trawling issue and quickly approved by the Senate last week.
Proponents of the revised bill, including the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, argue that large-scale shrimping nets kill hundreds of millions of juvenile fish and destroy vital seafloor habitats.
The Wildlife Federation has sent an email to over 1.5 million North Carolina license holders urging anglers to support the legislation.
Capt. John Mallette, co-owner of Southern Breeze Seafood Co. in Jacksonville, said those pushing the bill have offered no context or explained how it will damage the industry.
Capt. John Mallette, co-owner of Southern Breeze Seafood Co. in Jacksonville, is opposed to the shrimp trawling ban. (Photo: NCGA screengrab)“The amendment for the shrimp trawl ban is baseless and full of lies,” Mallette told reporters at a Tuesday press conference.
Mallette said trawling has been going on for more than a century and fishing in the region remains sustainable.
“There’s still plenty of fish around. The shrimping is getting even better, even though the amount of shrimp has gone down.”
The Pamlico Sound accounts for 75% of the state’s shrimp landings. Closing that area to trawling would cripple the entire industry, according to Mallette.
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission notes that North Carolina is the only state on the Atlantic or Gulf coast that continues to allow widescale trawling in inshore waters.
“There is no magic bullet that will restore depleted fisheries overnight, but reducing the impacts shrimp trawling has on the habitats that juvenile fish depend upon and limiting by-catch of those fish will make a difference,” explained the federation in an online message to its members.
Rep. Phil Shepard (R-Onslow) said the legislation was not just bad for commercial fishermen, but consumers who prize fresh seafood.
“I was born Down East, and I know the difference in a local shrimp and one that comes from Thailand or China.”
Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) — one of the legislature’s leading voices for environmental protection — also joined the chorus of voices opposing the trawling ban.
Senator Bobby Hanig, who represents ten coastal counties, has been fighting the ban in the upper chamber. Hanig called the Senate maneuver to pass the revised version of HB 442 “sleazy politics at its worst.”
Rep. Keith Kidwell (Photo: NCGA)Rep. Keith Kidwell (R-Craven) said the bill would “flip the switch” on the economy in eastern North Carolina, harming not just the commercial fishermen, but all the supporting businesses.
“Are we going to shut down the people who live every day making an honest living because some branch of the government finally decides some slimy backroom deals that they don’t want to do this anymore?”
Kidwell said the bill would not advance in the state House on his watch.
“We’re going to spike this bill. And we’re going to drive a stake through its heart so it’s dead — because as you’ve noticed many times in this building, bills are like Freddy Krueger. Once you think they’re dead, they come back to life. This one’s going to die. It will be a swift, painful death.”
Kidwell also predicted House Bill 441 that would offer temporary “transition payments” to commercial fishermen impacted by the proposed trawling ban, would also fail as primary sponsors of the original bill have asked that their names be removed from the legislation.
“I’m going to beg everybody in this General Assembly. All my friends in the House and my enemies — Don’t sponsor a bill that’s going to kill an industry that supports the east coast of North Carolina. I’m not going to let it happen.”
The debate has grown increasingly bitter in recent days with authorities arresting a Brunswick County man for threatening to kill state lawmakers who would support the trawling ban.
The commercial shrimping industry in North Carolina is valued at more than $14 million per year.
Advocates and businesses of the shrimping and seafood industry gathered at the North Carolina Legislative Building on June 24th to protest a proposed ban on inland trawling. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline) Read More Details
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