June 23, 2025 — Outer Banks commercial shrimpers will be waiting until next week to learn the fate of a bill in the North Carolina House of Representatives that could potentially destroy their business.
An amendment inserted unexpectedly into HB 442 last week set off a firestorm in coastal communities that harvest the majority of the state’s wild-caught shrimp.
The new language, added to what was originally a bill focused on expanding recreational fishing access to flounder and red snapper, calls for a ban on shrimp trawling in all of North Carolina’s inland waters and within a half mile of the Atlantic Ocean shoreline. “You’d be wiping out almost a whole industry,” said Steve House, chairman of the Dare County Commission for Working Watermen, which met in a special meeting on Thursday June 19 to discuss the bill.
In a later interview, House, who is vice chair of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, confirmed that HB 442 would likely be voted on in the NC House on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday next week.
“They haven’t put it on the calendar yet,” he said.
Although he believes it will be a close vote, House said he is reasonably optimistic that the controversial bill will fail. “I know our representatives up and down the coast have been working hard to get this bill squashed,” he said. If the measure passes in the NC House, it will go to the desk of Governor Josh Stein, who House said would not be expected to veto it.