NORTH CAROLINA — Legislation moving through the North Carolina General Assembly could bring a significant change to how the state manages its coastal waters and a longstanding industry.
READ MORE: Local rep, fishermen call on state to improve fishery management after flounder season cancellation
Titled the “Flounder/Red Snapper Seasons & Shrimp Trawl Act,” the bill began as an effort to restore recreational flounder and red snapper seasons and increase the fish populations, but it heads back to the House this Wednesday, July 25, after facing significant changes. A last-minute amendment was passed by the Senate, 39-2, on June 17, for House Bill 442. The bill included a proposal to ban inshore bottom shrimp trawling in all of North Carolina’s estuarine waters and within one-half mile of the Atlantic Ocean shoreline.
H.B. 442 stems from mounting concerns over North Carolina’s declining inshore fish stocks. Assessments by the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission show significant drops in key populations. Southern flounder was declared overfished in 2019, weakfish has been depleted since 2003, and Atlantic croaker and spot fish are experiencing ongoing overfishing.
A 2017 assessment noted the bycatch of shrimp trawling accounted for 81% to 99% of Atlantic croaker’s annual removals. Flounder made upward of 33% bycatch discard, while weakfish contained around 8%.
The revised bill is sponsored by Jennifer Balkcom (R-Henderson), Brian Biggs (R-Randolph) and Alan Branson (R-Guilford); however, Bill Rabon (R-Brunswick), to the surprise of at least one of the cosponsors, added in the amendment to limit shrimping during the bill’s review in the Senate Agriculture, Energy, and Environment Committee on June 17.
“This is just an archaic thing that we have allowed to happen,” Rabon said in last week’s committee meeting. “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. I have friends at home that are in the business.”
Representative Edward Goodwin (R-Chowan), a primary sponsor of the original H.B. 442, has opposed the Senate’s trawling ban amendment, publicly stating his belief on social media: “
Currently, other measures are in place for bycatch reduction, including weekend closures for inshore trawling, progressive area closures, and the requirement of turtle excluder devices — spaces in trawling nets for turtles to freely escape.
Proponents of the bill, including Tim Gestwicki, CEO of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, argue inshore shrimp trawling is a primary culprit in the decline of inshore fish stocks.
“North Carolina is the only state in the country that still allows this practice in our inland waters,” Gestwicki told Port City Daily. “This is the time to align with the rest of the country.”
For instance, in South Carolina inshore shrimp trawling has been largely restricted for decades, a policy established to protect vulnerable juvenile fish from bycatch and estuarine habitats.
From an ecological standpoint, Gestwicki said removing finfish from the ecosystem disrupts the natural food web.
“Those are the fish that are serving the ecological functions for turtles, dolphins, shore birds and larger predator fish,” he said. “So they are the web that feeds the entire ecosystem that both public fishermen and commercial fishermen are seeking.”
Critics of the bill contend it will devastate an industry that brings in $14 million, as of 2023.
Monica Smith, operator of Miss Gina’s Shrimp in Beaufort, has been working in the industry since the mid-2000s. Her business sells roughly 200,000 pounds of shrimp, primarily caught from the Pamlico Sound, to the public annually. But Smith indicated this bill’s passing would put Miss Gina’s out of business.
“I was a teacher and I was a nurse, and I would have to go back to that, you know, we do this because we love it, it’s our whole livelihood,” Smith said. “Every single baseball jersey and loaf of bread and light bill and car payment comes from shrimp. You don’t do other things.”
Proponents of the bill argue for every pound of shrimp caught, roughly four pounds of fish are caught in bycatch — a ratio initially circulated by Louis Daniel, former director of the state’s marine fisheries, who later referred to the ratio as “not a good estimate” for bycatch.
Smith told Port City Daily the ratio is not accurate to reality.
“If that was an actual statistic, that would be 1,000 pounds of shrimp — which is not unheard of for our boats to catch in a drag — and up to 4,000 pounds of fish,” she said “That’s ridiculous. You’re not going to tell me that my husband, who’s driving and one deckhand, is going to handle that much.”
The timing of this legislation is also a point of contention. The North Carolina General Assembly, in its 2021-22 state budget, mandated a taxpayer funded $1-million, three-year “Study of the Coastal and Marine Fisheries of the State,” conducted by the North Carolina Collaboratory at UNC. The research aims to provide recommendations to policymakers on improving the management of 13 regulated species — including shrimp — by assessing coastal resource health, habitat, and comparing North Carolina’s fisheries performance to other states. Crucially, the results of this long-awaited study are set to be announced on June 30, just seven days after the anticipated House vote on H.B. 442.
Gestwicki dismisses any notion that completing “Study of the Coastal and Marine Fisheries of the State” is a prerequisite for action.
“There’s been studies upon studies upon studies of this matter,” he said. “Regardless of what that study shows … there will be no conclusion that says that trawling on the bottom is a positive thing.”
However, Sarah Doss, owner and operator of Wilmington’s Rx Restaurant with her husband, James, said it could lead to making more “responsible” decisions when it comes to local seafood resources.
“It just seems kind of crazy to just push this through when this study has been going on for a couple of years now, and we’re about to have all of this information,” she said.
The Dosses locally source seafood, including shrimp purchased from shrimper Davis Seafood in Sneads Ferry, for Rx. They also have a license to spearfish their own lionfish and operate their own oyster farm. If H.B. 442 bill were to pass, Doss said she isn’t sure where they would get their shrimp.
“Shrimp is a good portion of our menu,” she stated. “We would never import it, we would never serve foreign shrimp, ever, ever, ever. I don’t know if we would consider looking at South Carolina or elsewhere for shrimp. I’m not sure what the answer is yet.”
Historical data from the state’s marine fisheries indicates shrimp from inshore waters make up 75% of the total harvest. In 2023, 57% of the state’s 6.57 million pounds of shrimp originated inshore.
Smith of Miss Gina’s argued their industry is already highly regulated. North Carolina is the only state to require bycatch reduction devices (BRDs) since 1992 and mandating two BRDs, which have achieved at least 40% finfish bycatch reduction by 2018.
Smith’s husband, Allen, who operates two of Miss Gina’s three boats added one of their shrimping boats isn’t a deep-sea vessel.
“We get them when they’re in the sound and once they grow older they head out to the ocean,” he explained. “The majority are in the sound.”
To mitigate the economic impact, companion H.B. 441, was also proposed. A companion bill, it seeks to enact a temporary transition program with fees for commercial fishermen facing losses from the ban. The transition program would offer financial assistance, potentially funded by fishing license fees, to help affected shrimpers adapt or transition out of the inshore trawling industry. Smith called the proposed transition program “a waste.”
“Shrimpers do not want a buyout or money,” she said. “They want to go to work. They are the most hardworking group of people, they don’t want a buyout.”
H.B. 441 also underwent text changes as it was initially proposed as a bill to name the loggerhead turtle as the official state reptile. Initially passed through the house on May 7, it was rewritten in committee on June 19 in response to H.B. 442.
Port City Daily asked Gestwicki to address concerns that the bill could affect the restaurant industry and local shrimpers.
“About 90% of North Carolina’s shrimp consumption currently comes from the Gulf and abroad,” Gestwicki said. “We expect that there will be no decrease in the shrimp harvest. It just won’t be done in a non-sustainable way at the expense of killing all the other sea life in those trawls.”
Gestwicki anticipates the change will support tourism and allow the commercial industry to flourish.
“It’ll support the piers, it’ll support the recreational charter guides,” he said.
H.B. 442 is currently set for a concurrence vote in the House of Representatives the morning of June 25. If the House approves the Senate’s changes, the bill will then go to Governor Josh Stein for his signature or veto.
H.B. 441 remains in the Rules and Operations Committee.
Port City Daily reached out to Sen. Rabon for comment on the bills, a response was not received by press.
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