Republican state lawmakers are on the cusp of doing something they’re usually undoing – protecting the environment.

The state Senate’s Republican majority has voted overwhelmingly in support of a bill that would prohibit commercial shrimp trawling in Pamlico Sound and within one-half mile of the Atlantic Ocean shoreline.

Democratic lawmakers also support the bill and its backers say Democratic Gov. Josh Stein would sign it. Now it’s up to House Republicans to make the long-sought ban a state law. South Carolina and Virginia already prohibit wide-scale trawling in inshore waters, as do all other states along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

But the proposed ban was added with little notice as an amendment to House Bill 442, a bill concerning recreational fishing for flounder and red snapper.

The proposed ban faces strong opposition from commercial shrimpers. If the House doesn’t act before lawmakers take their summer break at the end of this week, North Carolina may lose its best opportunity to stop trawlers from raking through coastal waters that serve as nurseries and habitat for a variety of fish.

“I think this is our last real chance at this,” said David Knight, a former assistant secretary of natural resources for the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources and a consultant to the nonprofit NC Wildlife Foundation.

Trawling in shallow waters also depletes fish stocks by taking in juvenile fish, an effect known as by-catch. Some reports estimate that shrimp trawlers collect 4 pounds of by-catch for every pound of shrimp.

If the North Carolina ban passes, Knight said, “It will be the most significant natural resource improvement in our lifetimes.”

Some environmentalists are not so sweeping about the effects of a trawling ban. They say it will help, but sensitive parts of Pamlico Sound are already protected and agricultural runoff, development and climate change are broader threats.

Indeed, even as state Republican lawmakers favor a ban on inshore shrimp trawling, their general opposition to environmental regulations and skepticism about climate change may be damaging what they want to protect.

What’s put Republicans in the unlikely position of favoring a law that would limit the local shrimp industry is the competing interest of recreational fishing. Knight said the trawling ban has won support from conservatives because it will increase fish stocks. For many Republicans, he said, it’s not an environmental protection issue at all, but a hunting and fishing issue.

If inland trawling ends, Knight said, “Within one spawning season, we will see a huge difference in our natural resource.”

The state’s Wildlife Resources Commission did not support or oppose the trawling ban, but it noted in a statement that “reducing the impacts shrimp trawling has on the habitats that juvenile fish depend upon and limiting by-catch of those fish will make a difference.”

But boosting fish stocks may end some shrimping operations and have ripple effects on businesses that process, serve and ship North Carolina shrimp.

Jimmy Phillips, whose family has operated Clyde Phillips Seafood Market in Swansboro since 1954, trawls for shrimp in Pamlico Sound in his 78-foot boat, the Captain Phillips. He said equipment improvements have cut shrimpers’ by-catch by 60 percent and trawling should be allowed in a sound so large it’s “a small ocean.” He said a ban on inshore trawling will “shut the shrimping industry down.”

The state Senate on Monday passed a bill that would offer transition payments to commercial shrimpers affected by the ban, but Phillips said the payments wouldn’t be large enough to offset his losses.

Recreational fishing interests have long tried to end trawling in the sound, Phillips said. Now he thinks those interests are about to prevail. “We’ve just been railroaded by the high and mighty,” he said, “just because they want it all for themselves.”

The state should fully compensate shrimpers if they face an abrupt ban on working the Pamlico Sound, but it clearly is in the state’s wider interest to end the trawling practice.

The sound – 80 miles long and 15 to 20 miles wide – is a nursery for fish, and its natural state should be restored and protected. It’s good for the environment and supporting recreational fishing is good for the coastal economy.

Commercial fishermen have a fair complaint that the proposed ban has come up with little notice. But it has long been clear that allowing shrimp trawling in inland waters is a detriment to fish stocks and the overall environment. A ban is in order – as is generous compensation.

There are plenty of shrimp elsewhere, but there’s only one Pamlico Sound.