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

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.

"Completely unnecessary," said Ryan Speckman, the co-founder of Raleigh-based Local Seafood. "We have a safe, healthy, sustainable food right on our coast. There's no good, logical reason why we have to close it down."

Opponents of the ban say the industry has made great strides in limiting the bycatch — that is fish other than shrimp that are caught in the trawling nets — in recent years. The nets are required to have finfish- and turtle-excluder devices to allow those animals to escape the nets.

"It's hard to believe our state is doing this," said Jess Hawkins, a retired fisheries biologist who previously served on the Marine Fisheries Commission.

But Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said it was time to end the long-simmering debate and that banning trawling will help other aspects of the fishing industry.

"The enhancement of recreational fishing opportunities that will come about by virtue of the enhancement of the fishing stocks will more than offset any losses that will come about as a result of the bill itself," Berger said.

He added: "You'll still have commercial fishermen. They just will not be shrimping with nets in inland waters. They'll catch other fish. They'll do other things."

The trawling ban passed the Senate 41-4 on Wednesday despite strong opposition from Sen. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, and other coastal senators. Hanig proposed five amendments and tried other procedural moves to stop the ban, but was unsuccessful.

"People are going to lose jobs," Hanig said. "It's going to decimate our fishing industry. They're saying they're not going after commercial fishing. They're going after commercial fishing one step at a time. You can call it death by 1,000 cuts."

That the opposition was limited to four senators representing coastal counties was an indication, Berger said, "that what we did is the right thing to do."

Berger said he saw two social media posts that included threats against lawmakers after the initial vote on the ban. The threats made reference to the shooting death of the House Speaker in Minnesota.

"It's not something that we take lightly," Berger said. "And it's something that is an unfortunate consequence of the way people feel free to speak when they can be either anonymous or semi-anonymous on social media."