A group of recreational fishermen and fishing guides sued some of the state's largest shrimping companies and state regulators this week, taking a long-running fight over coastal fishing rules to federal court.
The lawsuit accuses shrimp trawlers of violating state and federal rules, killing off large populations of fish and churning up sediment as a byproduct of dragging shrimp nets across the sea floor. The group asks a federal judge to enforce the rules in place.
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"Each defendant independently and significantly has harmed North Carolina’s coastal waters by using non-selective, destructive trawling equipment to harvest shrimp, or by allowing such shrimp trawling practices to continue despite federal and state laws prohibiting such activities," the lawsuit states.
The suit names a number of shrimping companies and the state Division of Marine Fisheries. A DMF spokeswoman said Thursday that the agency had no immediate comment on the case, which was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
The owner of the first shrimping company named in the suit, Capt. Gaston LLC, didn't immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
The plaintiffs promised two months ago to sue if their calls for reform weren't met.