Shrimping issue continues to simmer among fishing groups

Kudos to the copy editor at The Star-News in Wilmington, N.C., who wrote the clever play-on-words headline that appeared in the June 27 edition, introducing an article written by reporter Gareth McGarth. The headline read: “A proposed inland trawling ban left NC shrimpers boiling hot.”

 

Indeed, temperatures did surge in Raleigh as hundreds of commercial fishermen and their supporters showed up to lobby for the future of their industry and oppose anti-trawling restrictions that had been proposed by the North Carolina Senate.

North Carolina’s wild-caught seafood industry contributes nearly $300 million a year and 5,500 jobs to the state’s economy, according to North Carolina Sea Grant, a government-university partnership that focuses on coastal and marine issues. (Sea Grant applies university research to promote sustainable use of North Carolina’s coastal resources.)

Shrimp is the state’s second largest fishery, behind only blue crabs, so it’s vitally important in the grand scheme of commercial fishing.

However, McGarth noted that the state’s recreational fishery is even bigger business, “dwarfing N.C.’s commercial fishing sector.” 

“Recreational fishing pumps almost $2 billion annually into North Carolina’s economy,” according to reports from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the American Sportfishing Association.

Is this shaping up as a “David and Goliath” tussle?

 

McGarth (shown below) noted: “Shrimpers contend that nearly 1 million acres of the most environmentally sensitive areas in the state’s big sounds are already protected from trawling, and North Carolina shrimpers are among the leaders in the country in looking at ways to reduce bycatch.”

 One of the sources cited by McGarth was NC Catch, a nonprofit, volunteer organization that works “to bring together commercial fishers, consumers, seafood dealers and scientists to learn from each other and keep North Carolina seafood on tables from the mountains to the sea.”

 The organization was established in 2011 and is well-supported within Carteret County. The current board chair of NC Catch is Barbara Garrity-Blake of Gloucester, a cultural anthropologist and author, who teaches marine fisheries policy at the Duke University Marine Laboratory on Piver’s Island near Beaufort.

 

North Carolina shrimping is not “industrial-scale fishing,” and according to NC Catch, fewer than 300 shrimp boats are presently working in North Carolina waters, which is roughly half the number that existed 20 years ago.

They are “mostly small family operations where the fishermen have fished commercially for 25 years and are keen to carry on an old profession that is vital to the welfare of their small hamlets,” NC Catch said.

 

Anti-trawling restrictions could eliminate about 70% of the current shrimp harvest in North Carolina,” NC Catch said. “But, this is about more than just shrimp – it’s about preserving North Carolina's maritime heritage, supporting working families and ensuring consumers have access to safe, sustainable, locally caught seafood.”

Micah Daniels, retail/wholesale seafood market owner and commercial fisherman, runs Fresh Catch Seafood in Wanchese, N.C., along with her husband, Matt Huth.

To help separate myths from facts on the shrimping issue, NC Catch published “Trawling Truths,” which Garrity-Blake and others regard as “one of the most significant, comprehensive, well-researched products ever produced by NC Catch.”

The document provides data-based facts in response to falsehoods spread by groups opposed to trawling.” It can be accessed on the NC Catch website. 

There’s also a link to correspondence from attorney Stevenson L. Weeks of the Wheatly Law Group in Beaufort that was sent to all members of the North Carolina House of Representatives offering a legal perspective on the matter.

Moving shrimp trawlers from inshore waters, like the Pamlico Sound, out into the ocean may seem on the surface to be a “simple solution,” but Weeks contends that 80% of the working shrimp boats are too small to operate safely in the ocean environment.

 

Is it time to “reel in” N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission?

Perhaps it’s time we look in on the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) and try to assess why this body is so “interested” in trying to implement a statewide shrimp trawling ban.

Shrimpers, those who fish commercially and recreationally, are not happy about how the North Carolina Senate tried to “cram it (anti-trawling legislation) down our throats,” wrote Nelson Paul, a columnist for the Carolina Journal, a publication sponsored by the conservative John Locke Foundation in Raleigh.

Among those groups stirring the pot to destroy the livelihood of shrimpers, Paul said, is the NCWRC, an agency of state government, which is supposed to be “neutral” when it comes to politics.

 

Yet, the NCWRC contacted by email everyone who has a state fishing license – some 1.5 million folks – to ask them to support anti-trawling legislation that would devastate the shrimping industry in North Carolina.

That’s inexcusable behavior, and Michael Kyle Briggs (shown below), executive director of the commission, ought to be called on the carpet. He took command on Jan. 1, 2025, having risen through the ranks within the agency. Briggs began his career more than 30 years ago at NCWRC as an inland fisheries technician.

 

Today, Briggs oversees approximately 700 permanent employees and manages an annual operating budget of approximately $110 million.  

The NCWRC was established in 1947 by the General Assembly and “charged with the stewardship of North Carolina’s fish and wildlife resources as well as providing programs and opportunities that allow hunters, anglers, boaters and other outdoor enthusiasts to enjoy wildlife associated recreation.”

The commission has regulatory powers to enforce the state’s fishing, hunting, trapping and boating laws. 

The NCWRC is primarily funded through the sale of licenses, federal grants and legislative appropriations. It operates with a significant degree of financial independence.

There are 19 members of the NCWRC. The Governor appoints 11: one from each of the nine wildlife districts and two at-large members. The General Assembly appoints eight members, with four being recommended by the Speaker of the House and four by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate.

Carteret County is one of 12 counties in Wildlife District 2 and is currently represented by Mike Alford of Jacksonville (shown below). He is owner and president of automotive dealerships in Jacksonville and New Bern. 

The chair of the NCWRC is Monty Crump (shown below), who is employed as the city manager in Rockingham in Richmond County.

 

The NCWRC is accountable to the legislature. Paul and others suggest that the NCWRC is a fairly isolated and insulated agency with significant resources, power and authority, but subject to a minimal amount of oversight.

Using the fishing license mailing list “to directly propagandize the hook-and-line fishing public about the supposed evils of shrimp trawling is a blatantly political act,” Paul said.

“This was an obvious attempt by (an agency of) state government to tilt this debate in the direction of the anti-trawling proponents. Exactly what jurisdiction does the NCWRC have over shrimp trawling anyhow?”

“The NCWRC should have stayed out of the debate. This should be a red-flag warning that this proposed ban is all just a setup to unnecessarily destroy this vital fishing industry and the deep-seated shrimping traditions coastal families have enjoyed for generations.”

“State environmental resource agencies should be protecting the environment FOR the people, not FROM the people,” Paul asserted.

Folks are suggesting that the time has come for the governor and legislative leaders to show some true bipartisan leadership and act swiftly to jointly “reel in” the NCWRC and right a wrong…before things get totally out hand. 

N.C. fisheries ‘boundaries’  stir up murky water

Realizing that “navigating fisheries management in North Carolina can be tricky business,” the North Carolina Marine & Estuary Foundation, a nonprofit organization, has offered its assistance in sorting things out.

 

Its guidelines may be helpful in determining the appropriate jurisdiction of state agencies related to water-based activities in North Carolina.

(The foundation was established in 2017 by business leaders dedicated to supporting eastern North Carolina.)

Basically, the Marine & Estuary Foundation says North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) manages freshwater fisheries and activities that take place in and on North Carolina’s inland lakes, rivers and streams. (Green area on map.)

Saltwater fisheries and activities fall under the jurisdiction of the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission (NCMFC). (Blue area.)

 

The two units of state government – Wildlife Resources and Marine Fisheries – share responsibility for “joint fishing waters,” which are essentially those areas in the state where the “river meets the sea.” (Yellow area.)

In these joint fishing waters, the two agencies are expected to get along and “work things out” to arrive at decisions that are mutually agreeable, acceptable and fair to all concerned. That’s the way it’s supposed to work.

But when Wildlife Resources came out in favor of imposing statewide restrictions on shrimp trawling in June, it crossed over into Marine Fisheries’ territory, or so it seems. Some observers accused the Wildlife Resources crowd of overstepping its boundaries and bullying.

In reality, Wildlife Resources and the Marine Fisheries are not “equal entities” within the state government structure. The Wildlife Resource Commission reports to the General Assembly as a whole. And as such, it operates with a whole lot of autonomy.

In contrast, the Marine Fisheries Commission is a quasi-governmental agency. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor, but it has no staff.

Support services to the commission are provided by the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, a unit within the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) that reports to the Governor.

The Secretary of Environmental Quality is appointed by the Governor. D. Reid Wilson presently serves as NCDEQ Secretary (shown below).

Kathy Rawls, the director of the Division of Marine Fisheries, reports to the Secretary.

 

In short, Rawls, as the head of the Division of Marine Fisheries, and Sammy Corbett (shown below), a commercial fisherman in Hampstead (Pender County), who is chair of the Marine Fisheries Commission, have to go through “proper channels” before issuing public statements.

So, in essence, the playing field between Wildlife Resources and Marine Fisheries is not level.

Maybe it’s time to level that playing field in Raleigh and take the wind out of the sails of Wildlife Resources, which appears to be prone to sticking its nose into somebody else’s business affairs.

Political observers shake their heads and say: “Easier said than done.” The General Assembly is controlled by Republicans. 

Gov. Josh Stein is a Democrat, and he’s stacked the deck so the departments under his jurisdiction are led by “his people.” That’s just the way it works.

(The shrimp in the sea don’t much care for political labels…they’re “unaffiliated.”)

What’s doubly interesting…as well as doubly troubling…is that this whole “Shrimpgate” feud in Raleigh originated among Republicans in the state Senate squabbling with one another.

The coastal delegation represents a slew of counties, but these are mostly rural in nature and sparsely populated. As such, the coastal region is disadvantaged, because “we’re severely outnumbered” in the legislature.

Only four senators stood tall and voted against the shrimp trawling ban. Hooray for them – Bob Brinson, Bobby Hanig, Michael Lazzara and Norman Sanderson.

One coastal senator who “voted the other way” was Bill Rabon, who represents North Carolina’s “southern coastline” – Brunswick and New Hanover counties.

 

What was he thinking? The plot thickens.

Shrimping issue is tangled among bureaucratic tentacles

Who knew shrimp trawling could get so complicated? It seems that deciding where to harvest shrimp in North Carolina is fraught with “too many cooks in the kitchen.”

 

The topic of shrimp trawling popped up in late June at the General Assembly in Raleigh when the state Senate voted to prohibit shrimp trawling within inshore waters and send the shrimp boats out to sea…requiring them to keep their distance – a half-mile out from shore.

 

Shrimpers felt they were targets of a direct and brutal assault by certain lawmakers who wanted to cripple and destroy the industry.

 

Indeed, the shrimping families were ambushed by a gaggle of politicians who sneakily rammed through anti-trawling legislative amendments – a deceptive power play that came from foul territory far beyond left field.

Fortunately, the Republican leadership in the state House of Representatives chucked the amendments overboard, refusing to consider the measure. For now.

Confusion clouded the entire situation, but two sources were especially critical of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC), an agency of state government, which waded into the fray and took sides in support of the shrimp trawling ban.

 

It was revealed in the June 23 issue of the Carolina Journal, published in Raleigh, that the NCWRC sent an email to more than 1.5 million North Carolina fishing license holders that advocated the shrimp trawling ban. Recipients of the email were encouraged to contact their home legislators, urging them to support the ban.

Nelson Paul, who owns a real estate business based in the Morrisville, N.C., area, is a Carteret County native with a family heritage that is directly tied to commercial fishing. He authored the Carolina Journal article and remarked: “The email was received like soaking a fresh wound in a gallon of alcohol.”

 

Paul effectively blew the whistle on “a state agency using state resources to push a blatantly political position.”

Similarly, an editorial in the June 25 edition of the Carteret County News-Times asserted that the Wildlife Resources Commission’s email “crossed legislative and jurisdictional boundaries that should cause immediate reaction from the legislature.”

By promoting legislation, “the commission, which is financed by taxpayers, engaged in an action…that is questionable, unethical and possibly illegal,” the News-Times editorialist commented.

Furthermore, the NCWRC should mind its own business and stay out of the shrimp trawling debate, the News-Times declared. “The NCWRC…has jurisdiction over all the wildlife resources on land and inland waters but not saltwater habitats.”

“Saltwater habitats fall under the jurisdiction of the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries (NCDMF), which takes into consideration both inland and ocean fisheries in coordination with the federal government through the National Marine Fisheries Service,” according to the News-Times.

 

“Both Wildlife Resources and Marine Fisheries have had to compromise on areas of brackish water, half salt and half fresh, where some fish species spawn. But in the main, any issue regarding the protection and management of saltwater resources, shellfish, finfish and crustaceans, which includes shrimp, is the responsibility of Marine Fisheries, not Wildlife Resources.”

The stakes are high. The News-Times noted that shrimping has been “an economic mainstay for hundreds of coastal communities for more than 300 years and is the state’s second largest fishery, behind the blue crab fishery.”

“The harm goes beyond just the direct economic and cultural impact caused by the potential destruction of a major state industry; it also harms the public by denying access to a valuable food source – local, wild caught, North Carolina shrimp.”

 

Nelson Paul said he thinks the NCWRC’s meddling in the shrimping business may be the tip of the iceberg. That’s worth exploring further.

Portsmouth connects the dots between ‘fishing and swishing’

Inhabitants of fishing communities perfected the art of netmaking in order to survive. This was the case in the island village of Portsmouth, located on the northern tip of Core Banks in Carteret County, N.C.

Living on an island, the basic premise for residents in the olden days was “if we couldn’t make, grow or catch it, we didn’t much need it.”

Sisters Nora and Elma Dixon were excellent Portsmouth netmakers of the 1940s and ’50s, and they developed a bit of a curious “cottage industry” on the side by making netting for other purposes.

Richard Meissner shared their story during an interview in 2009 with Stephen Jesse Taylor, who was a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Taylor wrote a master’s thesis about Portsmouth and included some of Meissner’s material.

 

A retired English teacher from Asheboro, N.C., Meissner served many years as a key volunteer leader at Cape Lookout National Seashore. He enjoyed a friendship with Jessie Lee Babb Dominique, a niece of the Dixon sisters.

Jessie Lee had given Meissner a keepsake, one of the basketball nets that was netted by the Dixon sisters.

Meissner said: “I understand there was a netmaking place in Beaufort, and the Dixon sisters would be what we call subcontractors. They weren’t the only ones. Ladies all around the county made these things, and other things that the net company had them make, to bring in a little extra money.”

When the basketball net was finished, “you have to do one more thing to it for it to be useful. And that’s to cut it open at the bottom,” Meissner said.

“Can you imagine some young Michael Jordan in Iowa throwing a basketball through a net that two little old ladies on Portsmouth made?”

 

Nora Dixon died in 1956, at age 64, but Elma Dixon has another claim to fame.

She and niece Marian Gray Babb (an older sister of Jessie Lee Babb Dominique) were the last two permanent residents to pull up stakes and leave Portsmouth in 1971 – more than 50 years ago.

Elma Dixon and Marian Babb

There’s no telling how many basketball nets were laced on the front porch of the Dixon family house in Portsmouth, but the one in Meissner’s possession is priceless.

Dr. James Naismith invented the game of basketball in 1891 in Springfield, Mass. The original goals were peach baskets. Metal rims debuted several years later, but nets weren’t added until 1912, according to research by Phil Edwards, a freelance journalist.

 

The reason rims have nets is so shooters can hear the “swish” sound of “nothing but nylon.”

Nobody seems to know who “invented” the use of the net, but Edwards said the first person to write about “swish shots” in 1913 was Trebor Yarrum, a student at Trinity College in Durham, N.C.

Yarrum was a regular contributor to the college’s literary magazine. In one story, he described a fictional basketball game: “A swish of netting resounded as the ball dropped through the goal without touching the iron rim.”

Trinity College was renamed Duke University in 1924. How fitting that “swishing” has its roots there.

 

One of Duke’s best swishers of all time was Dick Groat. His basketball jersey (#10) was retired in 1952 – the first Blue Devil jersey to be hoisted to the rafters of Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium. Groat also excelled in baseball and went on to play Major League Baseball, spending most of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

 A true outdoorsman, Groat’s favorite happy hunting ground was said to be in Carteret County – at Cedar Island and Portsmouth.

Groat was 92 when he died in 2023. He was the great uncle of professional golfer Brooks Koepka, who has won five major championships.

 

 

‘Vacation Bible School’ tradition originated in 1894

Vacation Bible School (VBS) is an annual summertime occurrence within the international faith community. It’s a time when churches open their doors to welcome young people to step inside and enjoy a week of fun, activities, arts and crafts, games, music, storytelling, fellowship and spiritual exploration.

 

Most religious historians agree that today’s model for VBS originated at the Hopedale (Ill.) United Methodist Church in 1894.

 The Hopedale United Methodist Church was founded in 1869.

Martha J. “Mattie” Pritchard Miles was the 24-year-old wife of the Rev. David Thomas (D.T.) Miles, who was assigned as the Methodist pastor there in Hopedale, a rural village located about 25 miles south of Peoria in central Illinois.

 

This is the Miles family portrait.

Mattie Miles was employed as an educator with the local public school system, and she also taught a Sunday school class for youths at the church. She said she felt “limited by time for teaching Bible studies to her pupils,” so she made plans to teach children during the summer.

In so doing, Mattie Miles is credited as being the founder of “America’s first daily summer Bible school.” Her program, offered during the summer of 1894, lasted four weeks and had 40 students.

 

Another pioneer in VBS history was Virginia Lucretia Sinclair Hawes, a native of Charlottesville. Va. She was the wife of Dr. Walker Aylett Hawes of King William County, Va. The couple relocated to New York City when he was dispatched to carry out a “medical ministry to children” there in 1898.

 

Virginia Hawes found work as head of the “children’s department” at The Baptist Church of the Epiphany in New York City’s East Side. She taught many of the children who were also being seen at her husband’s clinic, kids who were being treated for injuries received while playing in the streets.

“She surmised that they needed something safe and fruitful to occupy their time,” wrote Willie R. Beaty, author of a booklet titled “New Horizons in Vacation Bible School.”

“Mrs. Hawes rented a beer parlor near the church for six weeks in the summer of 1898 to conduct her evangelistic ‘Everyday Bible School,’” Beaty said. While some gasped at the thought of using a saloon as a location for a ministry for children, Virginia Hawes thought it was perfectly fine. It was a large space and unoccupied by patrons during “school hours.”

She had 57 students to enroll. Virginia Hawes told Bible stories and introduced the children to memory verses, games, crafts, drawing and cooking during the daily lessons. Under her direction, the Everyday Bible School expanded to seven locations by 1900.

 

The program gained support from Dr. Robert G. Boville, executive director of the New York City Baptist Mission Society, who promoted the VBS concept to other churches. He also recruited students from the Union Theological Seminary in New York City to serve as teachers.

Dr. Boville established a “VBS movement” in the United States and founded the World Association of Daily Vacation Bible Schools in 1922.

In 1923, Standard Publishing of Cincinnati, Ohio, which specialized in printing religious publications and church education materials, introduced VBS curricula on three different age levels beginning with kindergarten.

Today, VBS is almost a “rite of passage” in the South, said Abigail Wilt, a contributor to Southern Living magazine. As a little girl, she attended VBS at her Grandmother Margaret’s church in the Smoky Mountains at Canton, N.C.

 

“I spent many summers reciting Bible verses, building Noah’s Ark out of popsicle sticks and running around (full of energy) with a red-stained Kool-Aid mouth,” Wilt said. “Kool-Aid’s the sticky-sweet summer drink of choice that runs through the veins of all VBS kids.”

This is VBS Week at St. Peter’s United Methodist Church in Morehead City, N.C., and about 35 youths are participating, ages pre-K through fifth grade. 

The theme of VBS this year is “Epic Australian Adventure.” Materials are produced by Concordia Publishing House of St. Louis, Mo.

Children are introduced to the Sugar Glider, from the possum family, and the Quokka, one of the smallest species of wallabies.

 

Promotional literature describes the action of  “going on an epic adventure through Australia to encounter amazing animals, lush landscapes, stunning sea life and wondrous wilderness. And most importantly, we will be guided by our Savior, Jesus, who tells us, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life’ in our theme verse, John 14:6.”

“Kids will discover how to keep Jesus as their guide, navigating through life’s distractions and challenges. As they journey through the unique Australian plains, they will learn to stay on the right path, walking with faith and purpose.”

Here are some more of the creatures that are featured:

 

The Rev. Karl Zorowski, pastor at St. Peter’s United Methodist Church, said VBS has been a proud tradition of the congregation since “at least the 1960s,” and the program has been directed since 2008 by Shannon Banks, who also serves as the church music director.

 “Together, we select a curriculum each year, and Shannon is in consultation with other area churches, as we attempt not to duplicate themes that others are using,” Rev. Zorowski said.

“The children’s ministry is vitally important to us at St. Peter’s, and VBS enables us, as a church, to show the community that we are here to bring children together so they can learn more about Jesus,” he said.

“Children today are subject to the influence of a lot of voices in the world that are bombarding them with a lot of different messages; we want to ensure that one of the messages they hear is that of the Gospel,” Rev. Zorowski said. “We love to see the changes in children over the course of the week.”

There’s also the additional benefit in that VBS offers members of the church an opportunity to work together as a team.

“An effective VBS includes numerous activities such as music, crafts, games, snacks, and, of course, Bible lessons; this variety of needs presents a chance for our volunteers to share their gifts and talents,” Rev. Zorowski noted.  

“For many people in the community, VBS is the face they see of the local church. Through the years, I have heard from parents outside the church about how much their children love VBS at St. Peter’s.”

On Thursday (July 24) the VBS students learned about Uluru, one of Australia’s famous natural landmarks.

The ancient sandstone monolith near the middle of the continent is located in the Northern Territory. The land is sacred ground to the indigenous Aborigines who have lived in this area for tens of thousands of years.

It is believed the rock was created more than 500 million years ago. To put this fact into perspective, the first mammals and the dinosaurs inhabited the Earth between 200 million and 300 million years ago. So, a fun fact for kids is that Uluru is about twice as ancient as the dinosaurs.

Uluru is 2.2 miles long and 1.2 miles wide. The circumference around the base is 5.8 miles.

It stands 1,141 feet tall, which is about 78 feet taller than the Eiffel Tower (1,063 feet) in Paris, France.

Uluru appears to turn bright red at sunrise and sunset due to the way the sunlight interacts with the iron oxide in the sandstone.”