July 15, 2025 — In the wake of Dare County Commissioners Chair Bob Woodard’s proposal to form a coastal coalition to protect the commercial fishing industry, several counties have already responded positively.
Woodard made the proposal in a July 3 letter to the board chairs of 19 NC coastal counties, after a measure to ban shrimp trawling in the state’s inland waters and within a half mile of the Atlantic shoreline was killed by the NC House on June 25. He also suggested that the coalition kick off with a meeting in August at “a central location.”
According to Dare County Public Information Director Dorothy Hester, as of Friday, July 11, Dare County had heard from five counties. Two of the counties, Craven and Currituck, have appointed a representative to the coalition. Three others, Brunswick, Carteret and Tyrell, are placing it on their boards’ next meeting agendas for action.