RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina's coastal fishing regulator unanimously rejected a proposal Thursday that would have banned shrimp boats from trawling in the region's rivers and sounds and forced them into the open ocean to catch the crustaceans.
The Marine Fisheries Commission voted 9-0 to scrap a petition seeking rules declaring most internal coastal waters as seafood nursery areas off limits to trawlers.
Supporters of the ban blame shrimpers' massive nets for collecting and killing millions of fish in the inshore waters where juvenile sea creatures grow up. Only the New Bern man proposing the plan spoke on its behalf during the four-hour hearing.
"If (timber company) Weyerhaeuser was killing that much, or the hog industry, or the poultry industry, the outcry would be deafening. The state's citizens would be up in arms," said Tim Hergenrader.
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