Dead in the water: North Carolina House won't move forward with proposed shrimp trawl ban

A Senate-passed bill to ban shrimp trawling in North Carolina’s inland waters won’t advance in the House this session, lawmakers confirmed to WRAL on Tuesday afternoon.

About 100 shrimpers and others opposed to the ban cheered in the state legislative building as House Republicans emerged from a caucus meeting and announced that they wouldn't push forward with the bill.

The ban would have pushed shrimp trawling off-shore, a move that critics said would have destroyed the industry and harmed much of the coastal economy.

Sen. Bobby Hanig and Rep. Keith Kidwell, coastal lawmakers and fierce opponents of the ban, told WRAL that House Bill 442 would not advance this session. Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, an opponent of the measure, also told WRAL that it wouldn't move forward.

Hanig, a former House member, said the House Republicans voted unanimously not to move the bill forward.

"It's great for the people of North Carolina and everyone that came here and fought against this egregious bill," Hanig said.

Hundreds of protesters showed up Tuesday to express their anger over the proposed ban. Dozens stuck around Wednesday. Hanig estimated that there were 800 people Tuesday and another 300 on Wednesday.

"We've heard their voices," Kidwell said.

A former Republican nominee for state auditor, who received more than 49% of the vote in 2020, was arrested and charged with threatening to kill a state senator over the shrimp ban.

The ban passed the Senate 41-4 last week. The chamber also passed a three-year bailout plan for impacted shrimpers.

Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said the measure passed by the Senate is a good bill. Proponents of the trawling ban say it's needed to help other fish species, protect the water and aid the state's recreational fishing industry.

"It's our belief that continuing to allow trawling in the inland waters is detrimental to the state overall, detrimental to our aquatic fish populations," Berger said Wednesday after the House decision. "Again, we're the only state on the East Coast or the Gulf Coast that allows that kind of net fishing in the inland waters and it's time for us to change that."

A study that state lawmakers commissioned in 2022 to conduct an analysis of the status of the state's fisheries and develop policy recommendations will be submitted to the body Monday, said Jeff Warren, the executive director of the NC Collaboratory.

The June 30 date is in the law.

The report doesn't take a regulatory stance on shrimp trawling, Warren said. It does considers 13 species, including their health and the extent of the habitat they require. The species: bay scallop, blue crab, eastern oyster, estuarine striped bass, hard clam, kingfishes, red drum, river herring, sheepshead, shrimp, southern flounder, spotted seatrout and striped mullet.

Bills in the legislature are never truly dead. They can be revived at any time, usually by being put in another piece of legislation. But the House and Senate are in a standoff over the state budget and are expected to leave Raleigh for at least several weeks.

"We'll be vigilant," Kidwell said. "If it comes back and reforms in another bill, we'll call back our shrimpers and fight the fight again."

Said Hanig: "We have won the day and we'll continue to win on this issue. It is something that should have never come before the General Assembly."

The original House Bill 442 would have created a flounder season of at least six weeks for the next four years. North Carolina canceled its flounder season in 2024 due to overfishing in 2023. The Senate revamped the measure to add the trawling ban last week.