Fish out of water: House guts proposed shrimp trawling ban

On Wednesday afternoon, the House decided against moving forward with a bill that would ban shrimp trawling in inland waters. The decision followed spirited protests in Raleigh this week.

Protesters against a shrimp trawling bill wait outside a committee room to learn the fate of a bill that could’ve put commercial fishers out of a job.

House Republicans decided on Wednesday not to advance a proposal from the Senate that would ban shrimp trawling within inland waters, sparking cheers from the roughly 100 protesters who flocked to Raleigh from across the state and launched a boisterous dayslong campaign to defeat the measure.

“It’s something, I think, ultimately our caucus feels like we need to do a deeper dive on,” House Speaker Destin Hall said after Wednesday’s caucus meeting. “The bill that came over from the Senate needs to be worked on some more and likely some changes made.”

Rep. Keith Kidwell of Beaufort County and Sen. Bobby Hanig spearheaded the effort to kill the shrimp bill, citing concerns for the economic wellbeing of commercial fishers. Senate Republicans offered a bailout for impacted fishers, but that didn’t assuage the concerns of many coastal members.