Saving Seafood

NORTH CAROLINA: New plan would pay shrimp trawlers who lose access to inland waters

June 19, 2025 — North Carolina lawmakers have a plan to pay commercial fishermen impacted by proposed restrictions on shrimp trawling in the state’s coastal sounds.

The Senate gave its final approval to the trawling ban Thursday afternoon. The proposal now goes to the House of Representatives.

Earlier Thursday, the Senate unveiled its plan to “provide annual transition payments to eligible holders of commercial fishing licenses with verifiable lands of shrimp” since 2023.

The payments would last until Oct. 1, 2028. The amount of the payment would depend on the value of eligible shrimp trip tickets submitted by the license holder, plus $180.

The bill would also increase the cost of a Standard Commercial Fishing License from $400 to $580. It would increase the license fee for non-residents to at least $2,000. The fee for a Retired Commercial Fishing License would increase from $200 to $290. The bill includes fee increases for commercial fishing vessel registrations, shellfish licenses, new fish dealers, land or sell licenses and temporary fishing licenses.

Supporters of the ban say it is necessary to help other fish stocks and that it would align North Carolina with other East Coast states that ban trawling inland. Opponents of the ban say it will destroy the shrimp industry in the state and hurt the entire commercial fishing industry.

Read the full article at WRAL

NORTH CAROLINA: NC Senate votes to ban shrimp trawling in sounds, angering some coastal Republicans

June 19, 2025 — The North Carolina Senate approved a bill Thursday that bans commercial shrimp trawling in inshore waters, including sounds.

Sen. Bobby Hanig, a Republican who represents multiple coastal counties, passionately opposed the ban.

“We need to save our heritage. We need to save our fisheries,” he said during a floor debate on Wednesday.

Hanig unsuccessfully proposed multiple amendments, including one to remove the ban from a bill where it was introduced by amendment just one day before. He was absent from the second of two required votes on the bill Thursday, as were seven other senators.

That original bill expanded recreational fishing seasons for flounder and red snapper.

Only four senators, all Republicans representing coastal areas, voted against the bill Wednesday: Hanig, Norman Sanderson, Bob Brinson and Michael Lazzara. With Hanig and Lazzara absent for the second vote on Thursday, the vote was 39-2, with Brinson and Sanderson opposed. There was no debate. Senate Democrats told reporters after the bill passed on Thursday that environmental concerns were the main reason for supporting the measure. The bill now goes back to the House.

Read the full article at The News & Observer

NORTH CAROLINA: NC considers ban on inshore shrimp trawling to protect estuaries. Opponents call it ‘disgraceful.’

June 18, 2025 — A ban on inshore shrimp trawling is moving quickly toward a vote in the North Carolina Senate.

On Tuesday morning, the provision was inserted into House Bill 442, which deals with recreational fishing of flounder and red snapper. It’s scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon.

It would outlaw shrimp trawling except in Atlantic Ocean waters at least a half-mile offshore, matching regulations in Virginia and South Carolina.

“We’re the only state on the East Coast that allows that,” Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, told reporters late Tuesday, saying the issue has “needed attention for a long time.”

Commercial shrimpers say their industry would be decimated.

“Shrimping is the lifeblood of a lot of counties,” commercial fisherman Thomas Newman said during the Senate Rules Committee meeting Tuesday. “You’re going to cut off 75% of the shrimp we produce.”

The state awarded 270 commercial shrimp licenses in 2023. Those shrimpers hauled in over 6.5 million pounds of shrimp, worth an estimated $14.1 million, according to Division of Marine Fisheries statistics.

Around half of those shrimp were landed in the Pamlico Sound, the same report says, and that’s been the case since 1994.

Read the full article at WUNC

NORTH CAROLINA: Fishermen fight Senate’s push to restrict shrimp trawling

June 18, 2025 — North Carolina’s shrimp industry faces a potential crackdown, as state senators pushed forward a bill on June 17 with a controversial amendment banning shrimp trawling within a half mile of the shoreline and inshore waters.

House Bill 442 passed the House in May, aiming to expand recreational flounder and red snapper fishing. However, during a Tuesday morning meeting, legislators in the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Energy, and Environment added the last-minute shrimp amendment, prohibiting trawling in coastal fishing waters and within one-half mile of the shoreline, effective Dec. 1, 2025.

Sen. David Craven, R-Randolph, who introduced the amendment, said an estimated 4 pounds of “bycatch,” meaning species that were inadvertently brought in, were caught per pound of shrimp.

“Which is a lot of other species of fish that are getting caught in the net, potentially dying,” said Craven. “This has been an issue for quite some time, and I think it’s time this body addressed it.”

Supporters of the amendment argued it aligns North Carolina with South Carolina and Virginia, reducing bycatch and protecting estuarine habitats.

The bill proposes a recreational fishing season for flounder of not less than six weeks between May 15 and Nov. 15 annually, with a limit of one fish per person, per day. Similarly, a year-round red snapper season with a limit of two fish per person, per day, and a 20-inch size limit in state waters.

Read the full article at The Carolina Journal

 

NORTH CAROLINA: Dewey Hemilright advocates for US commercial fishing fleet

June 17, 2025 — Dewey Hemilright has spent more than 30 years on the water as a commercial fisherman. Along the way he has become an outspoken, sometimes harsh critic of how commercial fishing is regulated in the United States.

He is forceful in expressing his opinions, his language sometimes colorful, but the knowledge is deep, insightful and earned through a lifetime in the commercial fishing industry.

“I started in the fish house, unloading the boat. That’s the lowest tier on the totem pole,” he recalled.

He moved up the totem pole to working in a fish house, “packing, laboring long hours, nights, winter, cold, all that other stuff.” And when he turned 21, he headed to Ocean City, Maryland, to go fishing.

“My first two weeks, I lost 15 pounds from being seasick and throwing up. But the first trip we went fishing, we caught a big bluefin tuna, and I thought it was the most unreal thing. And from then on, I’ve been going my own route,” he said, adding, “but I never thought when I got started into it, that (the industry) would end up where it is today.”

He’s a longliner, fishing from his 42-foot-long boat, the F/V Tarbaby. The name, he explained, came about because it’s a smaller version of the 48-foot Tarheel, a charter vessel owned by John Bayliss and built by Ricky Scarborough.

He doesn’t get out to sea much at all any more. The combination of his advocacy, bad knees and years spent on the water have taken their toll, although the Tarbaby still heads out from Wanchese with a father-and-son crew he’s worked with for years.

Read the full article at CoastalReview.org

NOAA-funded research finds ecological, economic benefits from oyster reef restoration

June 6, 2025 — A new suite of research has found efforts to restore oyster reefs on the U.S. East Coast has knock-on effects benefitting the economies of Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.

Two sets of research, one by the North Carolina Coastal Federation and another by Morgan State University’s Patuxent Environmental and Aquatic Research Laboratory in Maryland, U.S.A, found restoring oyster reefs would have direct economic benefits for the surrounding economies. The restoration projects use local quarries to supply rock to serve as the base of restoration projects, and once established the oyster reefs benefit the surrounding ecosystem which in turn boosts both commercial and recreational fishing.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NC Division of Marine Fisheries urges fishermen to complete license, permit renewals early

April 24, 2025 — The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries began renewing commercial fishing, seafood dealer and for-hire licenses and permits on April 15, and the division is asking fishermen go ahead and get this business done in April or May.

Those who renew in these months may find reduced wait times, as opposed to those who wait until late June, noted a DMF news release.

Another way to avoid long lines is to renew by mail or drop-box or schedule an appointment for April or May. Those with appointments will be given priority over walk-ins.

Read the full story at The Coastland Times

NORTH CAROLINA: Spotted seatrout harvest closure extended in state waters

April 8, 2025 — Cold stuns have pushed the harvest closure of spotted seatrout, also known as speckled trout, out an additional 15 days to June 30.

The closure, effective for both recreational and commercial fishers, is in accordance with the state Spotted Seatrout Fishery Management Plan, according to the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries.

State fisheries officials initially closed spotted seatrout harvest Jan. 24 effective through June 15.

Read the full article at CoastalReview.org

Research cruises assess North Carolina marine resources

March 27, 2025 — An East Carolina University professor is taking part in a series of interdisciplinary research cruises aimed at exploring biological organisms off the coast of North Carolina and gauging how climate and oceanic conditions affect marine resources.

Dr. Rebecca Asch, associate professor in the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biology, is a collaborator on the $1.5 million Research Opportunities Initiative grant. ROI grants are funded by the North Carolina General Assembly to encourage innovative and collaborative research projects across the state. Dr. Bradley Tolar, assistant professor of biology and marine biology at UNC Wilmington, leads the project with partnerships from ECU, UNC Chapel Hill and N.C. State University.

“It’s a really important initiative, and I am proud to represent ECU,” Asch said.

Transect Expedition to Assess Land-to-Sea Habitats via Interdisciplinary Process Studies (TEAL-SHIPS) is the name of the project. It involves researchers exploring the continental shelf of North Carolina to collect data and better understand physical, chemical and biological oceanographic processes. Surveys of the coast, from estuaries along the Cape Fear River near Wilmington to the Gulf Stream, will span two years of data collection throughout eight research cruises (four times per year, or once per season), with one year to analyze the data and findings. They will traverse the same locations, collect the same information and use the same equipment on each research cruise.

Transect Expedition to Assess Land-to-Sea Habitats via Interdisciplinary Process Studies (TEAL-SHIPS) is the name of the project. It involves researchers exploring the continental shelf of North Carolina to collect data and better understand physical, chemical and biological oceanographic processes. Surveys of the coast, from estuaries along the Cape Fear River near Wilmington to the Gulf Stream, will span two years of data collection throughout eight research cruises (four times per year, or once per season), with one year to analyze the data and findings. They will traverse the same locations, collect the same information and use the same equipment on each research cruise.

Asch said many of these offshore areas have not been surveyed by biologists since the 1990s.

Read the full article at East Carolina University

NORTH CAROLINA: North Carolina adopts 18 new marine fisheries rules

March 27, 2025 — On March 24, the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission implemented 18 new rules designed to enhance the management and conservation of the state’s marine and estuarine resources. These changes encompass improvements in data collection, harassment prevention, and the administration of shellfish leases.

Five of the newly adopted rules focus on bolstering data collection efforts and safeguarding Division of Marine fisheries employees from harassment during field activities, according to Island Free Press. Amendments expand protections against verbal, physical, or sexual harassment that staff may encounter while collecting vital data on marine and estuarine resources. Additional revisions to rules reinforce the obligation of fishermen to cooperate with data collection programs, emphasizing the critical role of accurate data in resource conservation.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman