The state Senate is voting today on whether to ban inshore shrimp trawling.
Every year, shrimp nets kill millions of fish growing up in North Carolina's sounds and estuaries. Senator Bill Rabon of Brunswick County is one of the Republicans who supports the change.
“This is just an archaic thing that we have allowed to happen. It's going to take a lot of fortitude for people to stand up and say: 'I really, I don't like it, but it is the best policy.'”
Commercial shrimpers oppose the ban. They hauled in $14-million-dollars worth of shrimp in 2023 — most from areas where trawling would be outlawed.