June 13, 2024 — The seafood industry contributes nearly $300 million to North Carolina’s economy.
But the state’s Wildlife Federation is calling for the end to inshore shrimp trawling due to its impact on other species.
The call to end inshore trawling comes following the cancelation of the recreational flounder season.
November 25, 2019 — A wildlife conservation group called this week for an overhaul in the way North Carolina manages its coastal fisheries, and a member of the policy-setting commission in charge is contemplating resignation.
The North Carolina Wildlife Federation voted Saturday to recommend a massive management consolidation over one of the state’s most contentious issues. Under their plan, the Marine Fisheries Commission, a board appointed by the governor, and the Division of Marine Fisheries, which enforces rules day to day along the North Carolina coast, would be folded into the state Wildlife Resources Commission.
Wildlife Resources is a stand-alone entity whose board is appointed by the governor and leadership in the General Assembly, and it already manages freshwater fishing in North Carolina’s lakes and rivers. The commission is jousting now with the Division of Marine Fisheries over just where each entity’s boundaries are when freshwater meets saltwater along North Carolina’s coast.
October 17, 2019 — A proposed coastal fishing regulation designed to protect species is drawing sharp differences of opinion from some of those affected.
Some think the measure is necessary to prevent continued loss of important fish species.
Others think the measure won’t work as intended and could prove catastrophic for coastal fishing industries.
Tom Roller is a professional fishing guide in Beaufort who brings his clients to sounds, bays, inlets and creeks to cast for red drum, speckled sea trout, bluefish and Spanish mackerel.
But his bread and butter, he said, is Southern flounder.
“They are extremely important to my business, but we don’t catch Southerns like we used to because they aren’t here anymore,” he said. “They are an example of how to overfish something and not do anything.”
The recreational Southern flounder fishery is closed for the rest of the year since the catch exceeded its target defined by the Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan.
Commercial landings of Southern flounder, according to the N.C. Wildlife Federation, have declined 88 percent over the past two decades. A landing is the amount of fish harvested at sea and brought to land.
April 29, 2019 — The Trump administration has put a suspension on plans to expand offshore drilling off the North Carolina coast, leading to mixed reactions from the state fishing industry.
Randy Robinson, a representative of Brunswick County on the N.C. Fisheries Association Board of Directors thinks that the presence of offshore drilling “isn’t necessarily a bad idea.“ He considers that offshore drilling could play a role in increasing the net amount of jobs for North Carolinians.
Additionally, Robinson blames the N.C. Wildlife Federation for causing more damage than offshore drilling would do. He explains that the organization’s push to reduce trawls and limit the length of nets for fishing shrimp has negatively affected commercial fishing across the state’s coast.
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.
March 1, 2017 — For months at a time, fisherman Dennis Aultman lives on his boat, the “Bertie P,” where he said he spends his time trawling along places like the “the Pamlico Sound and out off of the beach off of Ocracoke and Kitty Hawk.”
He’s just one of hundreds of North Carolina fishermen who said any changes to the industry would affect their livelihoods.
The N.C. Wildlife Federation introduced a petition last November to the state Division of Marine Fisheries that adds new regulations on shrimpers.
“I don’t understand why they want to shut us down,” said Aultman. “It creates jobs for a lot of people other than just us.”
But David Knight of the N.C. Wildlife Federation said the organization sees the regulations as a necessity.
“Those that are saying this is about banning shrimp trawling in North Carolina are incorrect,” said Knight. “That statement is untrue. If you look at our petition and read it closely, we want there to be more restriction on these nursery areas.”
February 28, 2017 — The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission voted February 16th to grant a petition for rulemaking and began drafting rules to implement it. If adopted, the rules will limit shrimp trawling in most North Carolina waters.
According to the Division of Marine Fisheries, shrimp are the second most economically important fishery in North Carolina. In communities like Englehard, Lowland, Hobucken and Down East Carteret County, many commercial fishermen make their living trawling for shrimp in the Pamlico Sound. That’s why a petition to reclassify most internal waters is a contentious topic right now.
At a public hearing last Thursday in Wilmington, the North Carolina Fisheries Commission voted 5-3 to grant a petition for rulemaking that if adopted would limit shrimp trawling in most North Carolina waters. Proponents say the changes would greatly reduce bycatch and help bolster populations of commercially valuable finfish. Those against the measure say it will raise the price of locally caught shrimp and could decimate the shrimping industry in North Carolina. Jerry Schill is the President of the North Carolina Fisheries Association, a nonprofit organization that lobbies local, state and federal policymakers on behalf of commercial fishermen.
“It was not surprising to us but it was very disappointing after you come off an advisory committee meeting in New Bern where the five advisory committees votes overwhelmingly to recommend that the Commission reject the petition or deny the petition. And they went ahead and accepted it anyway which was very disappointing.”
The petition, submitted on November 2nd by the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, and modified on January 12th asks the commission to designate all coastal fishing waters not otherwise designated as nursery areas (including the Atlantic Ocean out to three miles from shore) as special secondary nursery areas. It also seeks to establish clear criteria for the opening of shrimp season and define the type of gear and how and when gear may be used in special secondary nursery areas during shrimp season. Since the meeting, advisor with the North Carolina Wildlife Federation David Knight says he’s received a positive response from people who feel the recommendations are a step the right direction.
February 21, 2017 — Opponents of proposed shrimp trawl limits in the US state of North Carolina say they don’t plan on backing down, reports JD News.
“It’s going to be a long road,” said Allen Jernigan of Sneads Ferry, a full-time waterman who runs fishing charters and also does some commercial fishing.
The state’s fisheries commission voted five-three, with one member abstaining, last week to approve a petition for rule-making from the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, setting in motion a lengthy process of reviewing the rules proposed in the petition before a final decision is made.
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.”
February 17, 2017 — The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission Thursday approved a petition for rulemaking that could ultimately limit how shrimpers operate up and down the North Carolina coast.
At the close of the four-hour hearing at the Hilton Wilmington Riverside, the commission voted to approve the N.C. Wildlife Federation’s petition 5-3, with one member abstaining.
Federation officials explained earlier in the meeting the proposed rules are designed to protect juvenile fish that depend on the estuaries and near-shore waters to mature from being caught up in shrimp trawlers’ bycatch.