RALEIGH — North Carolina Wildlife Federation has filed a petition with the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission to designate all North Carolina coastal waters as protected fish nursery areas, establish clear criteria for the opening of shrimp season, and define the type of gear used during shrimp season.

The petition for rulemaking is part of the Federation’s Sound Solutions campaign to protect the state’s waters and reduce the millions of fish that are caught and wasted as bycatch in shrimp trawls each year. The millions of juvenile fish wasted and lost each year are a heavy toll on other fisheries and the future survival of those fisheries. The Federation notes that the petition is research-based, data-driven and the culmination of a two-year plus effort to balance the needs of the commercial shrimping industry with the need to protect important habitat areas that sustain and benefit all fishermen.

“The impact of industrialized shrimp trawl bycatch is felt coastwide, putting commercially and recreationally valuable fish stocks in trouble,” said Tim Gestwicki, chief executive officer of North Carolina Wildlife Federation. “The amount of juvenile fish caught and wasted in the shrimp trawl fishery is unsustainably high in North Carolina’s sounds and important habitat areas. We’re the only state on the east coast to allow shrimp trawling in its sounds, fish nurseries and estuaries.”

According to the petition, North Carolina has some of the most productive marine waters in the world, but due to management failure and habitat loss, the fish stocks living in these waters have become depleted, and in some cases, are nearing collapse. On average, for every pound of shrimp caught in North Carolina waters, about four pounds of bycatch — mostly juvenile fish — are caught in shrimp trawls and discarded as wasted bycatch.

The petition, which was filed ahead of the upcoming N.C. Marine Fisheries committee meeting, designates all of the North Carolina’s currently unclassified coastal waters as special secondary nursery areas. Additionally, it establishes clear criteria for the opening of shrimp season and defines the types of gear and how often gear may be used to harvest shrimp in special secondary nursery areas during shrimp season.

“We’re working to restore fairness and balance to a fisheries management system that has benefitted one select group to the detriment and exclusion of the rest of the citizens of North Carolina,” he said. “This petition aims to bring North Carolina in line with all other east coast and Gulf states in limiting trawling in sensitive and critical nursery and habitat areas. It is time we get serious about the future of our fish stocks for the future of North Carolina’s families and economy.”

A complete copy of the Petition for Rulemaking can be downloaded from the Sound Solutions program page on the NCWF website: www.ncwf.org/conservation-priorities/sound-solutions/.

The NCMFC public hearing for the petition will be held at the New Bern Convention Center on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m.