Saving Seafood

Outer Banks seafood sent to Louisiana as part of Hurricane Laura relief

September 16, 2020 โ€” More than 11,000 pounds of Outer Banks shrimp and fish is going to help with storm relief in Louisiana, another area known for seafood and devastating hurricanes.

The North Carolina Fisheries Association coordinated the effort with companies in Wanchese, Grantsboro, Washington, N.C., and Hampton, Va., to gather and ship 11,225 pounds of seafood, including more than 2,000 pounds of shrimp and nearly 9,000 pounds of filleted flounder and other fish, said Jerry Schill, government affairs director for the fisheries organization, in an email.

The seafood shipment was part of a relief effort to help those affected by Hurricane Laura.

โ€œHurricanes hit the Atlantic and Gulf coasts on a regular basis so we need to have the infrastructure in place and do what we can, just as they would do the same for us,โ€ Schill said.

Read the full story at  The Virginian-Pilot

Mariners found on life raft after escaping burning boat off Outer Banks, officials say

July 17, 2020 โ€” Two mariners were 15 miles off Cape Lookout โ€” on North Carolinaโ€™s Outer Banks โ€” Thursday morning when their boat caught fire and started taking on water.

One of mariners aboard the 35-foot fishing boat, named Double G, made a mayday call to the Coast Guard Sector North Carolina, according to a news release from the Coast Guard.

The two then threw on life jackets, grabbed a satellite phone and abandoned ship on a life raft, the release says.

Watchstanders with the Coast Guard put out an urgent marine information broadcast in response to the mayday call and launched a boat crew to the scene in a 47-foot motor lifeboat, the release says.

A Navy oiler nearby, hearing the Coast Guardโ€™s broadcast, also sent a helicopter crew to the scene to assist.

Read the full story at The News & Observer

Outer Banks fisherman will test device that could save sharks โ€” by tickling them

October 18, 2019 โ€” Fun fact: Sharks, unlike fish, can sense electrical stimuli, according to scientists.

Researchers in North Carolina are hoping to use that biological trait to their advantage with the help of a small electronic device designed to protect sharks from overfishing, N.C. State University announced in a press release this month.

The device, which โ€œhas shown promise in the laboratory,โ€ is reportedly ready to start pilot testing off the Outer Banks.

โ€œSeveral sharks are overfished or are experiencing overfishing on the U.S. East Coast,โ€ fisheries extension specialist Sara Mirabilio said in the release. โ€œPopulations of scalloped hammerhead, dusky, sandbar and blacknose sharks all could benefit from an effective deterrent from commercial fishing gear.โ€

The device could also help fishermen save time and money. Sharks like to chomp on fish while theyโ€™re hooked โ€” leaving fishermen with just a head by the time the fish are reeled in, the Virginian-Pilot reported.

Capt. Charlie Locke, an Outer Banks fisherman, has partnered with researchers on the project.

Read the full story at The Charlotte Observer

New device to be tested off Outer Banks could help save sharks from commercial fishing all over the world

October 17, 2019 โ€” An Outer Banks fisherman next summer will test a device about the size of a spark plug that could save rare sharks.

The waterproof gadget with a transistor inside would be connected just above the hooks on a long line used for commercial harvesting of species such as tuna and swordfish. It would emit an electric pulse that drives sharks away from the baited hook.

โ€œIf this works it will be huge,โ€ said Outer Banks fisherman Charlie Locke. โ€œIt could benefit fisheries all over the world.โ€

Sharks swarm the waters around the Outer Banks with many species spawning and giving birth here.

Hungry sharks gobble chunks from large tunas on commercial fishing lines. Charter boat anglers often reel in nothing but a fish head after a shark has bitten off the rest.

โ€œWe already know there is a healthy population here,โ€ Locke said.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot

Hurricane Dorian lands a punch on Outer Banks

September 11, 2019 โ€” Almost a year to the date after Hurricane Florence wreaked havoc in North Carolinaโ€™s fishing communities, Hurricane Dorian started its march toward the same target.

The week-long trek up the Southeast coastline had North Carolinaโ€™s fishermen pulling boats and removing gear from the waters. For most the effort paid off, with the aftermath proving to be little more than a cleanup and of course, precious time lost on the water.

Some were not as fortunate. Ocracoke Island, a barrier island on North Carolinaโ€™s Outer Banks near where Dorian made landfall Sept. 6, took the brunt and experienced catastrophic flooding with widespread destruction of property.

About 800 people, many commercial fishing families, rode out the storm on Ocracoke. Boats were lost, homes flooded, fish houses and waterfront restaurants destroyed.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Outer Banks seagrasses are declining, studies and observations show

August 6, 2019 โ€” Seagrass is more plentiful within the North Carolina Outer Banks than along any other eastern stateโ€™s coast except Florida, but it is losing ground.

State biologists are surveying seagrasses that prefer the saltier waters of the Pamlico Sound and waterways southward for the third time in a dozen years. A report is expected to come out early next year.

Spotters are seeing areas where seagrass is not present in places where it should be, said Jud Kenworthy, a retired NOAA marine scientist who is a volunteer team leader on the seagrass survey for the Albemarle Pamlico National Estuary Partnership.

Surveys in 2007 and in 2012 indicate the estuaries support about 150,000 acres of seagrass, but have declined at a rate of about a half percent to 1.5 percent per year, Kenworthy said.

Read the full story at The Virginia-Pilot

Overpopulation of sharks in North Carolina waters

June 18, 2019 โ€” Fishermen along the Outer Banks say there are too many sharks in North Carolina waters, so, WNCTโ€™s Dillon Huffman asked the question: is the fact that there are so many sharks, contributing to the number of attacks weโ€™ve seen.

There have been three in North Carolina in the past month.

Fishermen in the Outer Banks say not really, they said theyโ€™re more of a problem for them, but they said there are more sharks out there than you know and to be careful.

Holton Clifton is a commercial fisherman along the Outer Banks.

โ€œI love it, you get paid to fish,โ€ said Clifton.

He fishes for tuna on the Sandra D but said in the last few years heโ€™s noticed a problem.

โ€œAs soon as the rod comes up, the sharks are waiting, when a tuna starts struggling, the sharks just wolfpack them,โ€ said Clifton.

Holton said there are too many sharks in North Carolina waters and thatโ€™s due to there being so many rules and regulations when it comes to fishing for sharks most fishermen donโ€™t even bother.

โ€œIt makes it hard for us, you get a bunch of heads back to the boat, hahaha that ainโ€™t no fun for nobody,โ€ said Clifton.

Read the full story at WNCT

NORTH CAROLINA: Trawlers catching โ€œunheard ofโ€ amounts of shrimp off Corolla

January 14, 2019 โ€” South of the Virginia border, the shores off Corolla have become an Outer Banks hot spot to catch winter shrimp.

Trawlers have clustered there within 3 miles of shore in recent weeks, each bringing in as much as 20,000 pounds of the delicacy per trip.

Last week, the โ€œCapt. Ralphโ€ hauled in 30,000 pounds, the most ever for the crew, said Ashley Oโ€™Neal, manager of Oโ€™Nealโ€™s Sea Harvest.

In the past, 12,000 pounds was a good catch no matter where it came from, he said.

โ€œThis 30,000-pound stuff is unheard of,โ€ Oโ€™Neal said. โ€œWe are seeing a lot of shrimp.โ€

In 2016, North Carolina shrimpers harvested a record 13.2 million pounds, worth $28.2 million. It was a 45 percent increase over the previous year, according to state statistics. The record fell again in 2017 with a harvest of 13.9 million pounds worth $29.6 million. The 10-year average is just short of 8 million pounds. Most of the catch comes from estuaries like the Pamlico Sound.

Shrimp consumption in the United States reached a new record in 2017 at 4.4 pounds a person per year, making it Americaโ€™s favorite seafood, according to NOAA Fisheries. More than 90 percent of whatโ€™s eaten in the U.S. comes from foreign markets raised on farms.

Read the full story at the Daily Press

New England fishermen worry that wind turbines could impact their catch

December 26, 2017 โ€” NEW BEDFORD, Mass. โ€” East Coast fishermen are turning a wary eye toward an emerging upstart: the offshore wind industry.

In New Bedford, fishermen dread the possibility of navigating a forest of turbines as they make their way to the fishing grounds that have made it the nationโ€™s most lucrative fishing port for 17 years running.

The state envisions hundreds of wind turbines spinning off the cityโ€™s shores in about a decade, enough to power more than 1 million homes.

โ€˜โ€˜You ever see a radar picture of a wind farm? Itโ€™s just one big blob, basically,โ€™โ€™ said Eric Hansen, 56, a New Bedford scallop boat owner whose family has been in the business for generations. โ€˜โ€˜Transit through it will be next to impossible, especially in heavy wind and fog.โ€™โ€™

Off New Yorkโ€™s Long Island, an organization representing East Coast scallopers has sued the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to try to halt a proposal for a nearly 200-turbine wind farm. Commercial fishermen in Marylandโ€™s Ocean City and North Carolinaโ€™s Outer Banks have also sounded the alarm about losing access to fishing grounds.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Globe