Saving Seafood

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 Wildlife Federation Calls for Inshore Shrimp Trawling Ban

June 13, 2024 — N.C. Wildlife Federation (NCWF) CEO Tim Gestwicki called on state legislators Tuesday to “put a stop to inshore shrimp trawling as soon as possible.”

In a news release, Gestwicki said the call is in response to the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries (NCDMF) canceling the recreational southern flounder season for 2024.

“This is the first time that decision has had to be made, but the writing has been on the wall for a long time,” Gestwicki said. “Southern flounder and other important fisheries in North Carolina are in dire condition, and strong action is needed now to save them. While there are many reasons why southern flounder and other fisheries fall under overfished and overfishing status, one of the most significant contributing factors is bycatch from inshore shrimp trawling. That’s why allowing this practice in our sounds must stop now and shrimp trawling should only take place in coastal ocean waters.

“Bycatch is the unintended part of a catch taken because of the non-selectivity of the fishing gear used, in this case, shrimp trawls,” he continued. “The most reliable bycatch study done to date shows that for every pound of shrimp harvested in North Carolina’s waters (most of which are caught by trawls), over four pounds of non-target catch, including juvenile finfish, such as southern flounder, are discarded.”

Gestwicki said North Carolina is the only state on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts that still allows large-scale shrimp trawling in its estuaries.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

ASMFC South Atlantic Board Receives Atlantic Croaker and Spot Benchmark Stock Assessment & Peer Review Reports

August 2, 2017 — ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s South Atlantic State/Federal Fisheries Management Board met in May and August to receive the findings of the 2017 Atlantic Croaker and Spot Benchmark Stock Assessment and Peer Review Reports. While neither assessment was endorsed by an independent panel of fisheries scientists (Peer Review Panel) for management use, the Panel agreed with the general results of the assessment that immediate management actions are not necessary. The Panel recommended continued use of the annual traffic light analyses (TLA), established in 2014 to monitor fishery and resource trends, and implement management measures as needed, for Atlantic croaker and spot.

The Panel did acknowledge several improvements since the 2010 Atlantic croaker assessment, notably with regard to the estimation and inclusion of dead discards from the Southeastern US shrimp trawl fishery. Estimates of these discards indicate they account for a large majority of fish removed from the population annually (via directed and non-directed fishing activities) for both Atlantic croaker and spot. The Panel recommended continued monitoring of these discards and potential inclusion or consideration of these discards in the annual TLAs conducted for Atlantic croaker and spot.

A key issue causing uncertainty in the results of both assessments was the disagreement between recent trends in harvest and abundance. Trends in stock abundance for Atlantic croaker and spot are estimated through several federal and state fishery-independent surveys. Typically, if these surveys catch a relatively large number of Atlantic croaker or spot, that would indicate a greater number of Atlantic croaker or spot available to be harvested by their directed fisheries. Thus, scientists and managers would expect a greater abundance of Atlantic croaker or spot would also be reflected through an increase in harvest for that year. Similarly, a decrease in abundance would be expected to be coupled with a decrease in harvest. However, for both Atlantic croaker and spot, recent harvest numbers are declining while estimated abundance is increasing.

A similar trend is evident in the 2016 TLAs for Atlantic croaker and spot. The TLA assigns a color (red, yellow, or green) to categorize relative levels of indicators on the condition of the fish population (abundance metric) or fishery (harvest metric). For example, as harvest increases relative to its long-term mean, the proportion of green in a given year will increase and as harvest decreases, the amount of red in that year will increase. Under the Addendum II to Amendment 1 for Atlantic Croaker and Addendum I to the Omnibus Amendment for Spot, state-specific management action would be initiated when the proportion of red exceeds the specified thresholds (for both harvest and abundance) over three consecutive years for Atlantic croaker and two consecutive years for spot.

The 2016 TLA for Atlantic croaker shows red proportions of greater than the 30% threshold for the harvest metric (Figure 1) and 0% for the abundance metric (Figure 2), indicative of relatively low harvest and high abundance in 2016. Since thresholds were not exceeded for both metrics over the last three years, no management response is necessary for Atlantic croaker.

The 2016 TLA for spot also shows red proportions of greater than the 30% threshold for the harvest metric (Figure 3) and 0% for the abundance metric (Figure 4), indicative of relatively low harvest and high abundance in 2016. Since thresholds were not exceeded for both metrics over the last two years, no management response is necessary for spot.

The Peer Review Reports will be available on the Commission’s website, www.asmfc.org, on the respective species pages by mid-August. For more information, please contact Mike Schmidtke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mschmidtke@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

NORTH CAROLINA: Dare County GOP confronts N.C. GOP chair on shrimp vote

March 29, 2017 — In the wake of the N.C. Fisheries Commission’s approval of a petition putting greater limits on shrimp trawling, the Dare County GOP has written a letter requesting that N.C. GOP Chairman Robin Hayes appear before its executive committee and “provide relevant information regarding his personal involvement and influence in the 2016 appointment process of members of the North Carolina Fisheries Commission.”

In its letter to Hayes, dated March 16, the Dare GOP said the commission’s approval of the petition represented a decision to “ignore science and destroy our state’s shrimping industry,” and accused Hayes of intervening improperly in the process of selecting commission members.

The letter goes on to say that, if Hayes does not comply with that request to appear before the local party, he should resign his post as state party head.

The Dare County Board of Commissioners has also expressed anger at the Fisheries Commission’s Feb. 16 decision to adopt the petition from the N.C. Wildlife Federation calling for new regulations on shrimp trawling after five advisory committees had voted to deny the petition.

The petition calls for all inshore waters and the ocean out to three miles to be designated as special secondary nursery areas. It also proposes limiting tow times to 45 minutes and trawling to three days per week in the estuarine waters and four in the ocean during daylight hours.

Read the full story at the Outer Banks Sentinel

NORTH CAROLINA: Tale of two sides: Opponents, backers of shrimp trawling petition weigh in

February 23, 2017 — NEW BERN, N.C. — A fishing industry advocacy group said the proposed state regulations in a recently approved petition could sink shrimp trawling in North Carolina, but a recreational fishermen’s environmental nonprofit thinks shrimping will just need to change.

Representatives from the N.C. Fisheries Association, a nonprofit industry group that advocates for the state seafood industry, and the North Carolina branch of the Coastal Conservation Association, an interstate nonprofit dedicated to protecting the coastal environment, spoke Tuesday to a crowd of about 84 people at the regular meeting of the Coastal Carolina Taxpayer’s Association at the Stanly Hall Ballroom. The association invited them to provide their opinions on the petition for rulemaking approved Thursday by the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission.

Jerry Schill, NCFA executive director, said the association thinks the proposed special secondary nursery areas are the biggest problem with the petition’s proposed rules.

“The people who created this petition, they don’t understand the history of the (shrimp trawl bycatch) issue,” he said. “The fishing industry created nursery areas in the 1970s. In the 1980s, the term ‘bycatch’ came up.  Now we have turtle excluder devices in shrimp trawls and sea turtles have rebounded. Finfish bycatch is still an issue, but bycatch reduction devices are being used.”

Read the full story at the Carteret County News-Times

North Carolina shrimpers say net of new rules for trawlers will destroy industry

February 17, 2017 — WILMINGTON, N.C. — The state Marine Fisheries Commission voted Thursday to begin drafting rules that would limit trawling for shrimp in North Carolina’s inland coastal waters, a move that many on the coast say could destroy the shrimping industry.

The decision came after months of wrangling between commercial and recreational fishermen, with the latter group arguing that trawlers are scooping up millions of young fish before they’re old enough to spawn, effectively killing off fish stocks in the region.

The North Carolina Wildlife Federation petitioned the state – the only one on the East Coast that allows shrimp trawling in its sounds and estuaries – to reduce the size of trawler nets, limit how long nets could be pulled in the water, permit shrimping only three days per week and eliminate night-time shrimping.

“North Carolina has some of the most lenient shrimp trawling rules on the East and the Gulf Coast,” said David Knight, a policy consultant for the Wildlife Federation.

Thousands of people signed petitions against the proposal, and commercial fishermen packed Marine Fisheries Commission meetings in recent months to make their stance known. Hundreds left in disgust Thursday after the commission overrode the recommendations of its advisory committees and accepted the Wildlife Federation’s petition.

“What just happened today is appalling,” said Brent Fulcher, who owns Beaufort Inlet Seafood in Beaufort. “The state process is broken.”

Read the full story WRAL

NORTH CAROLINA: Marine Fisheries meetings planned for Feb. 15-16

February 8, 2017 — The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission will meet over two days instead of the usual three for its Feb. 15-16 meeting in Wilmington, and time for public comment will be included.

At the meeting at the Hilton Wilmington Riverside, 301 N. Water St., the business sessions will start at noon Feb. 15 and at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 16. Among items on the agenda is the N.C. Wildlife Federation petition for rulemaking regarding shrimp trawling season, along with potential cobia management measures and decisions on hard clam and oyster management.

Public comment will be heard at 3 p.m. Feb. 15. First to speak will be members of the public who signed up to speak about the petition during a Jan. 17 meeting but did not get to speak before time ran out. Afterward, anyone from the public may speak on fisheries-related topics.

Deliberation and voting on the petition is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 16. A complete agenda can be found at http://bit.ly/2k3WCat.

Up to 200 visitors may listen to a webcast and view presentations at http://bit.ly/2kP9gcU. An audio file will be posted after the meeting.