July 23, 2025 — All was still on the New River near the Davis Seafood fish house. But when 83-year-old William “Buddy” Davis walked out of his home and pulled on tall rubber boots, it signaled the work was about to begin.

Not far from tourist-filled beaches of Topsail Island, the Davis family began preparing for the homecoming of the 58-foot Capt. Davis and more than 10,000 pounds of shrimp it harvested from the South and Neuse rivers.

Jody Davis, co-owner of the Sneads Ferry fish house, hosed down the concrete floor and filled a metal vat with water. Using a skid-steer loader, he scooped buckets of ice into large bins.

Soon Capt. Billy Davis, one of Jody’s older brothers, was docking his boat between two others with the help of his crew — both kin.

Then the unloading began. Tons of brown shrimp were washed, counted, weighed and packed with ice into boxes ready to be sold or shipped. Everyone, including Jody’s father-in-law, who’s allergic to shrimp, pitched in.

As the packing continued, Billy Davis stepped ashore to get a closer look.

“I love shrimping,” he said. “It gives me that competitive thing that I need, where sports used to give it to me. Now I try to catch as many shrimp as I can.”

In a surprise move last month, state legislators almost banned shrimpers from trawling state waters including the Pamlico Sound and the Neuse River.

Members of the Davis family were among those who rushed to Raleigh to help defeat the ban. For now, they are back shrimping.

“It’s just not what it used to be, but it’s really the only thing we know,” Jody Davis said. “So we’re going to do it as long as we can.”

But how long he can continue is not clear. Families like his are fighting to preserve a job — and a way of life — that has supported them and their ancestors for generations.

Some challenges have been around for years. Recreational fishing advocates and conservationists accuse shrimpers of killing fish and damaging coastal habitats. Required to protect fisheries, state regulators limit where, when and how they can trawl.

Often cheaper shrimp imported from Ecuador, Indonesia and Vietnam have flooded the U.S. market, making it harder for North Carolina shrimpers to sell their catches for a decent price.

In a surprise move last month, state legislators almost banned shrimpers from trawling state waters including the Pamlico Sound and the Neuse River.

Members of the Davis family were among those who rushed to Raleigh to help defeat the ban. For now, they are back shrimping.

“It’s just not what it used to be, but it’s really the only thing we know,” Jody Davis said. “So we’re going to do it as long as we can.”

Read the full article at the News & Observer

July 7, 2025 –North Carolina lawmakers kept a ban on shrimp trawling from advancing in the General Assembly.

What’s happening?

The House of Representatives on June 25 declined to hear Bill 442, which would have prohibited the practice within a half-mile of the coast, the Island Free Press reported. The legislation had passed the Senate but was derided by shrimpers and the fishing industry.

Commercial anglers said 75% of their shrimp is harvested in the area that would have become off-limits, WUNC noted. In 2023, the state issued 270 licenses to shrimpers, who caught 6.5 million pounds of the crustaceans. The haul was valued at $14.1 million.

Bill 442 would have lengthened the southern flounder and red snapper seasons, but an amendment added the ban, making it untenable for those who make their living in the field.

Read the full story at The Cool Down

June 30, 2025 — Following the surprise introduction of legislation that would ban shrimp trawling in nearly all of North Carolina’s coastal waters, a host of groups and individuals have weighed in on the “Shrimpgate” proposal running aground.

They have included expressions of relief the ban will not be moving forward in the General Assembly, while one group believed to have pushed the proposal denied the accusations and another left their involvement unclear.

The state Senate passed House Bill 442 on June 20 that would make it a misdemeanor to operate a shrimp trawl in the sounds and up to one-half mile off the Atlantic coastline, which was tacked on to a bill requiring state regulators open flounder and red snapper seasons through a four-year pilot program.

That bill was then sent back to the state House for concurrence, since they passed the legislation before it was amended.

Hundreds of commercial watermen and women, restaurateurs, local political leaders, and others, from Currituck to Calabash and elsewhere across the state, walked the halls of the Legislative Building earlier this week to meet with members of the General Assembly and voice their opposition.

Outside, dozens of tractor trailers and box trucks that would normally be on the road hauling seafood up-and-down the East Coast were cruising the streets of Downtown Raleigh on Tuesday adorned with banners supporting North Carolina’s seafood industry and decrying the ban proposal.

Just steps away from the main entrance to the Legislative Building, an impromptu curbside seafood market with giant insulated boxes filled with thousands of pounds of fresh, brown shrimp on ice that was caught just a few days ago by the same trawlers that would be put out of business by the legislation.

Read the full article at Island Free Press

June 27, 2025 — As if it already wasn’t hot enough in the Tar Heel State in late June, a small crustacean that’s long been a popular food staple at the N.C. coast has succeeded in sending temperatures surging at the N.C. General Assembly in Raleigh.

But this has nothing to do with a polite squabble over the best way to cook shrimp. This, shrimpers and their supporters say, is about protecting their livelihoods.

About 70% of the state’s shrimp catch is caught in waters that would have been declared off limits under House Bill 442, according to NC Catch, an advocacy group for the state’s commercial fishing industry. According to statistics from the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, more than 9 million pounds of shrimp annually were caught by commercial shrimpers in the four years pre-Covid, worth upward of $20 million a year.

But supporters of the ban also say the proposed bill is about survival, in this case protecting the future of the state’s fisheries, many of which are overfished and struggling.

State Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, has said continuing to allow trawling in inland waters is detrimental to the state’s fish populations that use the shallow near-shore waters as spawning and nursery areas and, in the long run, damaging to the state’s commercial fishing industry, noting that North Carolina is the only state along the East or Gulf coasts that allows the practice.

Read the full article at Star News Online