(The Center Square) – Shrimpers spoke, and the Republican caucus of the North Carolina House of Representatives listened.
Legislation potentially fatal to the coastal industry, its leaders said, will rest in the Rules Committee of the lower chamber. A Wednesday afternoon session was delayed more than 90 minutes awaiting the decision that rejected the Senate’s insertion of a shrimp trawling ban within a half mile of the shoreline.
The North Carolina Fishers Association, at 3:30 Wednesday afternoon, posted in all caps to its social media, “HB442 trawl ban is dead!”
Sen. Phil Berger, the Rockingham County Republican and president pro tempore, stood by his chamber’s move. Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, pushed for a deeper dive on the decision. Steve Troxler, sixth term Republican state agriculture commissioner, on Monday respectfully confirmed opposition to the trawling ban.
On the same side of an issue as sizzling as the 110-degree heat index outside on Jones Street were Republican Rep. Keith Kidwell of Beaufort County and Democratic Rep. Pricey Harrison of Guilford County. To which the coastal plains rep quipped, “That takes a miracle right there.”
And, he said, must mean it’s wrong. Members of the shrimping industry and their supporters who filled the Legislative Building to make their voices heard agreed.
First filed March 18 as the Restore Flounder/Red Snapper Season by Rep. Frank Iler, R-Brunswick, the proposal was to restore “recreational fishing for summer flounder and red snapper in North Carolina through the creation of a four-year pilot program.” The Senate amendment was added June 17. And on Tuesday, Iler encouraged votes to defeat the bill.
“As much as I wanted a flounder season, which is in this bill, I urge everyone this year, who voted to oppose the bill last year, to vote to oppose the bill every chance they get,” he said.
Shrimp Trawling Transition Program/Fees, known also as House Bill 441, was on March 18 known as Iler’s Loggerhead Turtle/State Saltwater Reptile bill. The new version was a companion to HB442 getting through the General Assembly and establishing transition payments to commercial shrimpers.
It, too, will be parked to die in the House Rules Committee.
