WANCHESE, N.C. — North Carolina coastal communities are celebrating a win after a bill that would have banned shrimp trawling has died. After passing the Senate last week, the House of Representatives decided not to hear the bill.
The bill specifically would have banned shrimp trawling in all inshore fishing waters and within a half mile of the shoreline. Places that many Outer Banks fishermen have told News 3 are where they catch the majority of their shrimp hauls.
Since last week, coastal governments, organizations and fishermen have expressed their opinions. Hundreds even protested in Raleigh about how detrimental it would be to their livelihoods, coastal communities and the seafood industry in North Carolina as a whole.
“If it wasn't a big deal, people from our industry, who don't like to be around people a whole lot, wouldn’t have been sitting here in the General Assembly the past two days and several days last week. We're going to figure out how to start educating people after this to try to make sure it doesn't happen again," said Glenn Skinner, the executive director of the North Carolina Fisheries Association, speaking to News 3 minutes after the decision was made in Raleigh.
For fishermen, this outcome is a win, but a fight they know is not over. The ruling means that the bill is killed in this session of the General Assembly, but that doesn’t mean it can’t pop up again.
"Whether it's here at the General Assembly, whether it's another lawsuit, whether it's another petition for rule making, trying to twist around our management process. We're just waiting for the next one, and we're ready to fight, but we shouldn't have to that," said Skinner.
