Saving Seafood

Culinary community joining forces to help their fishermen friends affected by hurricanes

October 25, 2018 — In the wake of Hurricane Florence, North Carolina’s culinary and hospitality community has raised hundreds of thousands of relief dollars through a series of meals and events.

The latest aims to help North Carolina’s fishermen and shellfish growers impacted by the storm.

This Saturday, “Gone Fishing” will feature more than a dozen North Carolina chefs — including several James Beard nominees and winners — from Wilmington to Pittsboro at the new Junction West in Raleigh’s Warehouse District.

The event is organized by chefs Ashley Christensen of Poole’s, Jake Wood of 18 Seaboard and Locals Seafood, with proceeds going to the state’s fishermen and oyster and clam farmers affected by Hurricane Florence. The Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center is helping distribute the funds and will accept separate donations for North Carolina watermen.

Many of the participating chefs and restaurants focus on North Carolina seafood, including 18 Seaboard, Postmaster and The Cortez.

Read the full story at The News & Observer

Offshore drilling backers, opponents ready for North Carolina battle

August 8, 2017 — RALEIGH, N.C. — Federal regulators again want to hear what North Carolinians think about allowing oil and gas drilling off the state’s coast.

Last year, former President Barack Obama’s administration adopted a five-year energy plan that excluded drilling off the East Coast. But President Donald Trump has said he wants to see more offshore energy development, so his administration has tossed aside the 2016 plan and is starting over.

As part of that process, a public hearing was held Monday night in Wilmington, and others are set for Morehead City on Wednesday and Manteo on Thursday.

Gov. Roy Cooper said last month that he’s opposed to opening the coast to offshore exploration and drilling, saying he doesn’t think the risk to the state’s coastal tourism and commercial fishing industries of a major oil spill are worth the limited revenue North Carolina would receive from the move.

Read the full story at WRAL

North Carolina shrimpers say net of new rules for trawlers will destroy industry

February 17, 2017 — WILMINGTON, N.C. — The state Marine Fisheries Commission voted Thursday to begin drafting rules that would limit trawling for shrimp in North Carolina’s inland coastal waters, a move that many on the coast say could destroy the shrimping industry.

The decision came after months of wrangling between commercial and recreational fishermen, with the latter group arguing that trawlers are scooping up millions of young fish before they’re old enough to spawn, effectively killing off fish stocks in the region.

The North Carolina Wildlife Federation petitioned the state – the only one on the East Coast that allows shrimp trawling in its sounds and estuaries – to reduce the size of trawler nets, limit how long nets could be pulled in the water, permit shrimping only three days per week and eliminate night-time shrimping.

“North Carolina has some of the most lenient shrimp trawling rules on the East and the Gulf Coast,” said David Knight, a policy consultant for the Wildlife Federation.

Thousands of people signed petitions against the proposal, and commercial fishermen packed Marine Fisheries Commission meetings in recent months to make their stance known. Hundreds left in disgust Thursday after the commission overrode the recommendations of its advisory committees and accepted the Wildlife Federation’s petition.

“What just happened today is appalling,” said Brent Fulcher, who owns Beaufort Inlet Seafood in Beaufort. “The state process is broken.”

Read the full story WRAL

Coast Guard rescues 80-year-old man off Hatteras Island

December 19, 2016 — WILMINGTON, N.C. — An 80-year-old man was rescued by the Coast Guard Sunday morning after his skiff went adrift about eight miles northeast of Hatteras Island.

The Coast Guard was first notified about the man around 5 p.m. Saturday by Dare County 911 dispatchers who reported that the man had not returned to his family as expected after heading out on the water around 8 a.m.

Officials in Coast Guard Sector North Carolina Command Center in Wilmington immediately issued an urgent marine information broadcast and began coordinating search crews.

A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Elizabeth City launched at 5:42 p.m., and a Coast Guard 24-foot Special Purpose Craft-Shallow Water crew from Station Hatteras Inlet launched at about 5:28 p.m., according to the Coast Guard.

Both crews were on scene searching in Pamlico Sound by about 6:23 p.m., joining Hatteras Island Rescue crews and Hatteras Island Fire crews.

Crews searched through the night and were joined by others Sunday at first light. Searching Sunday were SPC-SW crews from Coast Guard Stations Oregon Inlet and Hatteras Inlet, as well as an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Elizabeth City.

Eventually, the man was found adrift in his 18-foot skiff about eight miles northeast of Hatteras Island around 8:25 a.m., unconscious but breathing, by a Hatteras Island Rescue skiff crew. The crew brought him to Avon Harbor where Dare County EMS met them and took the man to Avon Medical Center.

The man was then taken by helicopter from Avon to Sentara Norfolk general Hospital, arriving just after 10 a.m.

Read the full story at ABC 13

Hatchery Is Breeding Better Oysters To Boost North Carolina Aquaculture

May 16, 2016 — To feed a hungry world, it’s no longer enough to catch wild seafood. Many fisheries are in decline because of overfishing, environmental stresses or both, and human demand for protein has never been greater. That means aquaculture has to be a growing part of the world’s food supply. Here in North Carolina, it’s also an essential component in growing the economies of our coastal communities.

A case in point is the state’s oyster fishery, which once supplied much of the East Coast, but now can’t even meet demand from within North Carolina. Our state is working hard to emulate our neighbors to the north, who through state-sponsored shellfish research hatcheries have bred a better oyster, able to thrive in Chesapeake Bay and other Virginia waters.

In 2011, North Carolina began supporting a hatchery, right here on the CREST Research Park in Wilmington. UNC Wilmington faculty researchers and student workers are using selective breeding techniques, supplemented by some high-tech genetic research, to develop new strains of oysters to suit our state’s waters. The hatchery is also working with scallops, which are more challenging to grow but more lucrative to sell, as well as sunray Venus clams. But oysters are its primary product.

A recent comparison of oyster cultivation in North Carolina and Virginia, conducted by the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center, showed that in 2005, the two states were roughly even, each producing roughly a quarter-million dollars’ worth of farmed oysters. But while Virginia’s production exploded, reaching almost $10 million in just seven years, our state’s aquaculture operations barely doubled their output.

Read the full story at Wilmington Biz

NORTH CAROLINA: Fraught year plunges fishermen into politics

April 25, 2016 — WILMINGTON, NC — When he took the podium at an N.C. Recreational Fishing Alliance meeting last week in Wilmington, Rep. Jimmy Dixon, R-Duplin, was about the only person in a suit and tie. Outfitted in baseball caps and T-shirts emblazoned with leaping marlins and big-mouth bass, some in the audience, Dixon suspected, might be in unfamiliar waters.

“Some of you in here don’t even know the definition of politics, and here you are trying to get involved in politics,” he said. Before diving into a speech on fisheries, Dixon broke down that definition.

“‘Poli,’ which means many,” he explained. “‘Ticks’: blood-sucking parasites.”

The crowd roared with laughter, and after the past year in North Carolina fisheries management you’d be hard-pressed to find a fisherman in the room who disagreed. A fight over flounder catch restrictions pitted commercial and recreational fishermen against each other and pulled state legislators into the fray; state cuts to cobia catch roiled sports-fishermen again; and in February Division of Marine Fisheries Director Louis Daniel abruptly resigned and moved to shellfish sanitation.

Just last week, the state Department of Environmental Quality gave coastal management director Braxton Davis control of marine fisheries. A news release states the divisions will stay separate, but officials will “examine ways in which the two divisions can achieve efficiencies in operations.”

Months of turmoil have left local anglers concerned the state is ignoring possible overfishing of some species, especially in North Carolina’s delicate estuaries. At the RFA meeting, Dixon was joined by other leaders — Rep. Ted Davis Jr., R-New Hanover; Rep. John Bell, R-Craven; Rep. Billy Richardson, D-Cumberland; and aides to Congressman David Rouzer — who told fishermen that they’re listening.

Read the full story at Star News Online