NEW BERN, N.C. — July 30. 2013 — Dozens of fishing trawlers anchored along the riverfront in New Bern on Tuesday in opposition to a petition before the state Marine Fisheries Commission that could end shrimping in coastal waters.
The commission is being asked to declare the waters of North Carolina sounds as secondary nursery areas for fish, which would make them off-limits for commercial trawling.
More than 800 people packed the New Bern convention center for a public hearing on the proposal, and the crowd was overwhelmingly commercial fishermen.