BRUNSWICK COUNTY — A bill in the General Assembly that would ban shark fishing from the shore during a large portion of the year has garnered support from a local board.
The Brunswick County commissioners unanimously approved a resolution Monday supporting the bill, sponsored by Rep. Charles Miller (R-Brunswick, New Hanover), which commissioners said was a “common sense proposition” to protect beachgoers during the busy tourist season.
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House Bill 544 would prohibit taking sharks from the shoreline or a structure built on the shore, such as a pier, as part of a recreational fishing tournament from May 1 to Oct. 31. The rule would only apply to Carolina Beach, Caswell Beach, Holden Beach, Kure Beach, Oak Island and Bald Head Island.
“Land-based shark fishing tournaments sometimes allow potentially dangerous techniques to catch sharks that place swimmer safety at risk and increase the likelihood of shark attacks,” Miller said in a statement provided to Port City Daily. “I worked diligently with our legal staff and with the Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries to craft a bill that would preserve our fishermen’s opportunity to engage in offshore shark fishing year-round while safeguarding swimmers.”
The bill follows Southport business owner Marty Wright’s attempt to host a fishing tournament, and drop bait into the waters to funnel fish to the shore, along the Brunswick County coastline in June 2022. The event received some pushback from beach towns, with Holden Beach filing a temporary restraining order to prohibit the event.
Wright then moved the tournament to October.
Holden Beach again filed a restraining order.
On Oct. 4, Brunswick County District Court judge Quinton McGee canceled the tournament due to safety hazards for beach visitors.
The Brunswick County commissioners resolution states the intentional baiting and luring of sharks to the shoreline during tourist season “represents an unsafe and unwise use of the beaches.”
H.B. 544 affects almost all of the beach towns within Miller’s jurisdiction, except for Ocean Isle and Southport.
Southport spokesperson ChyAnn Ketchum clarified why the city was not included.
“Since we are technically on the Cape Fear River and not the Atlantic Ocean, we have not had any issues with shark fishing and/or shark fishing tournaments,” Ketchum wrote in an email.
The two New Hanover County beaches included — Kure and Carolina — describe their inclusion in the bill as a more proactive approach to this issue.
“This has not been an issue in Carolina Beach as of yet, but we could foresee a problem with shark-fishing tournaments on the shore if held during the tourist season,” town manager Bruce Oakley said.
Kure Beach Mayor Craig Bloszinsky said the logic behind H.B. 544 is the “right perspective.”
“I do not see value in putting bait in the water while tourists are using the beaches,” he said. “People have a right to fish but not endanger others. During tourist season, any predator fish tournaments are best held in deeper, not coastal waters.”
While left out of this legislation, the remaining New Hanover town, Wrightsville Beach, said it has not faced a situation where a shark fish tournament has been proposed along its shore. Town manager Tim Owens said the town was not approached to be included in this bill and pointed to Wrightsville Beach’s ordinance prohibiting shark baiting.
Since 1935, there have been at least 70 unprovoked shark attacks off the coast of North Carolina. Brunswick County has had the most with 16, followed by New Hanover County with 13.
H.B. 544 currently resides in the House Committee on Marine Resources and Aquaculture, of which Miller and Rep. Frank Iler (Brunswick) are members.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com
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