July 28, 2013 — Will the state Marine Fisheries Commission eliminate the inshore commercial shrimping industry in North Carolina? On Tuesday, four of the commission’s advisory committees will take up the question in a joint meeting at 12:30 p.m. in New Bern.
Timothy W. Hergenrader has filed a petition asking that all inshore waters, including the Pamlico Sound, be designated permanent secondary nursery areas.
The petition acknowledges that the effect would be “to halt shrimp trawling in North Carolina inshore waters.”
Adoption of the proposed rule would also ban commercial crab trawling.
Commercial fishermen and coastal county leaders are lining up against the petition, saying it would wipe out smaller operations that are unable to work in the ocean and depend on inshore catches.
According to Hergenrader, South Carolina banned nearly all inshore shrimp trawling in 1986 and saw increases in the shrimp catch after the second year of the ban.
Hergenrader’s petition attributed the increase to restricting shrimp trawling to the ocean, where shrimp are larger and more profitable.