Saving Seafood

NORTH CAROLINA: Florence Adds to Stress for Seafood Industry

September 27, 2018 — During a major hurricane, fish migrate away, oysters get contaminated and shrimp are blown to sea, scattered to deeper waters.

Though sometimes unnoticed, the seafood industry takes a big hit after storms like Florence. Not only does the crop move, but fishermen often live and work in the coastal communities that take the brunt of the storm’s rage.

“We get overlooked real easy. We are isolated to the coast. And unlike the agricultural industry, this affects everyone,” said Glenn Skinner, executive director of the North Carolina Fisheries Association. “Everyone who fishes is affected by this.”

Their boats, gear, docks and packing houses take a blow.

Anticipating the power outages, many fishermen got as much seafood as they could out of their giant cooling lockers and shipped it north and west. Any inventory that touches flood waters must be discarded.

Florence struck Pamlico County fishermen the hardest, according to Skinner. Some fish packing operations in Oriental and Vandemere were completely destroyed.

“It’s going to be a real hard winter for the industry,” Skinner said.

“We are kind of like farmers, we have a fall crop,” he explained. “The fall fisheries are big. We use that money and put it away for the winter time. The fisheries are going to be gone after this strong blow for several days. It will be next spring before we can make that up.”

Read the full story at the North Carolina Health News

After Florence, North Carolina fisheries begin recovery effort

September 24, 2018 — As Hurricane Florence pounded the North Carolina coast, representatives from Endurance Seafood used social media to give a first-hand account of the situation.

“We are all safe,” the company announced on a 14 September Facebook post. “The dock and coolers, not so good.”

Company video shows a storm surge pushing into the Oriental, North Carolina community. It was powerful enough to take the down the dock, damage equipment and flood the area. Five days later, Endurance owner Keith Bruno showed UNC Public Media the extent of the damage. The fishing equipment was safe, he said. However, the land operations, where Endurance buys and markets seafood, has been destroyed.

Bruno told UNC’s My Home, NC that the company will live up to its name.

“You’ve got to move forward, you’ve got to keep going…because that’s what we do,” he said. “We every once in a while have to pay a price to live so close to beauty.”

What price that will be for Hurricane Florence remains to be seen, but AccuWeather Founder and President Joel Myers predicted the storm will cause up to USD 60 billion (EUR 51.1 billion) in damage, and that includes the losses from the ongoing flooding wreaking havoc in the Carolinas.

A substantial portion of those losses will be incurred by the seafood industry, and once the weather subsides, officials want to be ready so they can expedite the recovery process.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fortune Fish: Some East Coast US species still ‘dicey’ to find thanks to Florence

September 21, 2018 — “East Coast [US] product will be dicey this week, to say the least,” thanks to the aftereffects of Hurricane Florence, the Chicago, Illinois-based wholesaler and importer Fortune Fish & Gourmet warns its customers in a blog on its website.

It’s been almost a week since Florence hit the coast of North Carolina and flooding remains throughout the region. As many as 200,000 were still without power on Wednesday evening.

The damage continues to be felt at sea as well.

“From the Carolinas to Maine, many vessels remain in port and most will have trouble getting out to work this week due to the lingering high winds and rough seas from Florence’s aftermath,” Fortune Fish advised on Tuesday.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Commercial, charter communities in North Carolina are answering the call for help

September 21, 2018 — The commercial fishing and charter boat communities in the north east part of the state are answering the call for help from hard-hit communities south of Dare, particularly Down East Carteret County.

On the weekend, some who tried to get into the area with their trailered boats made it as far as New Bern, where they were put to work making water rescues. Others took in heavy equipment to help clean up and clear roads.

Tuesday, led by Hatteras Island fisherman Paul Rosell, a group made the long trek to Davis in Down East Carteret County. They delivered supplies and took along equipment to help secure homes.

On Wednesday, Britton Shackleford, commercial fisherman, charter boat operator and Wicked Tuna Outer Banks personality, put out a call for others to join him to go Carteret County that day to clear trees around the homes of Capt. Sonny Davis and his family members. Davis is a member of North Carolina United Watermen.

More efforts are being planned and drop-off locations have been established from Elizabeth City to Hatteras Island. Please DON’T send clothes — the hard-hit areas aren’t staffed to hand them out and available space needs to be used for food and other supplies.

Read the full story at The Outer Banks Voice

 

Hurricane raises questions about rebuilding along North Carolina’s coast

September 21, 2018 — When Florence was raging last Friday on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, the hurricane tore a 40-foot (12-meter) chunk from a fishing pier that juts into the ocean at the state’s most popular tourist destination.

The privately owned Rodanthe pier has already undergone half a million dollars in renovation in seven years and the owners started a new round of repairs this week.

“The maintenance and upkeep on a wooden fishing pier is tremendous,” said co-owner Terry Plumblee. “We get the brunt of the rough water here.”

Scientists have warned such rebuilding efforts are futile as sea levels rise and storms chew away the coast line but protests from developers and the tourism industry have led North Carolina to pass laws that disregard the predictions.

The Outer Banks, a string of narrow barrier islands where Rodanthe is situated, may have been spared the worst of Florence, which flooded roads, smashed homes and killed at least 36 people across the eastern seaboard.

Read the full story at Reuters

IMPORTANT: NC & GA/SC Revised Cobia PID Hearing Dates

September 17, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

North Carolina’s Public Hearing on Atlantic Cobia PID, which was scheduled for September 18th at 6 PM in Manteo, has been rescheduled for September 26th at 6 PM at the same location (Dare County Commissioners Office, 954 Marshall Collins Drive, Room 168, Manteo, NC). The Georgia/South Carolina Public Hearing on Atlantic Cobia PID, which was scheduled for September 12th at 6 PM, will be held on September 24th at 6 PM at the same location (National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, 175 Bourne Avenue, Pooler, GA).

Effects of Florence on Long Island fishing are a mixed bag

September 14, 2018 — Fearsome Hurricane Florence may have missed Long Island by several hundred miles, but her high seas have stretched across the Atlantic Coast from Florida to New England. Following strong offshore winds that saw ocean swells topping 12 feet last weekend, the influence of the massive hurricane — plus the possibility of more heavy seas from two additional named storms now swirling in the Atlantic — have anglers wondering how the fishing might shape-up once the waves finally lay down.

Big storms can have a huge influence on Long Island’s fishing prospects, especially during September when many local species like fluke, sea bass, porgies and weakfish begin transitioning from the bays and coastlines out to deeper ocean waters. Some anglers believe a heavy storm at this time of year can shut the action down for days or even weeks; others think just the opposite, feeling that rough seas and dropping temperatures may spark the start of a fall bite. Depending on the year and the storm, it’s likely both camps are right some of the time.

“I’m worried that heavy seas and all the rain we’ve already had might slow the action for a few days,” said Capt. Joey Leggio of the Oceanside charter boat Frankie James. “At the least, all this foul weather will push fish further offshore. Anglers have been catching brown sharks and even cobia — a southern visitor that loves warm water — in as little as 20 feet of ocean water. I’m pretty sure those fish will move deeper. Fluke might make an adjustment, too. The biggest ones are already in 60- to 80-foot depths. They might just keep on going. You just never know.”

Read the full story at Newsday

NORTH CAROLINA: Fishing communities bend into the storm

September 14, 2018 — “We have everything secured — as much as we could do,” said fisheries writer Susan West on Thursday morning from the Outer Banks village of Buxton, N.C., as Hurricane Florence bore down on the Carolina coast. “We have plywood shutters up on most of our windows. The boat has extra lines on it.”

Her husband, Rob, fishes their 34-foot gillnetter, the Lucy B., which is docked at Jeffery’s Seafood on the sound side of nearby Hatteras Village.

“Most of the folks that we know — the fishermen — all stayed here,” West said. “Hatteras Village is still a thriving commercial fishing center.”

Farther south in Merritt, just outside of Oriental and closer to the storm’s projected path, NF contributor Maureen Donald reported similar circumstances.

“A very unscientific survey of residents deciding to ride out the storm proved to be commercial fishing families. Reasons for staying inevitably center on being near their boats and equipment. At nearby Oriental, it’s evident that two of the largest commercial fishing operations have made preparations — the docks are lined with trawlers securely tied to the docks.”

She added that the fleet has been busy for days leading up to the storm’s arrival.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NOAA Funds Projects to Reduce Bycatch With Engineering

September 4, 2018 — A group of organizations is getting more than $2 million in grants to use engineering to try to reduce bycatch in fisheries.

Bycatch is the term for when fish and other animals are accidentally caught with gear that was seeking a different species. Bycatch poses problems for rare species of dolphins, turtles, sharks and other animals.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is awarding more than $2.3 million to 14 projects as part of its 2018 Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program.

One of the recipients is Duke University, which will test the applicability of sensory-based bycatch reduction technology. Duke’s project seeks to reduce sea turtle bycatch in North Carolina.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Our Coast’s History: NC’s Oyster War

August 29, 2018 — Late January 1891, the steamer Vesper, rented from the Wilmington Steamship Co. and mounted with a well-used howitzer and caisson borrowed from the state of Virginia, left Elizabeth City with militiamen of the Pasquotank Rifles. Their mission: To enforce “An Act to Promote and Protect the Oyster Interests of the State” that had been passed barely a week earlier.

After three years of growing tension between North Carolina oystermen and vessels drifting down from Chesapeake Bay to harvest oysters in Pamlico and Roanoke sounds, North Carolina’s legislature had acted, creating a list of draconian restrictions on the harvest that prohibited dredging and allowed only in-state residents to gather oysters.

Tasked with telling the oyster poachers — mostly from Maryland — of the new law, as conflicts go, the North Carolina oyster war wasn’t much of a war, the rhetoric far outstripping the action.

“As she (the Vesper) proceeds on the return trip if any dredgers are found continuing to ravish the oyster beds they will be arrested, even if their boats have to be blown out of the water and their crews killed,” the Wilmington Weekly Star wrote.

In the end, the Vesper made one arrest, with other boats heeding the warning and leaving North Carolina waters.

Although short-lived and bloodless, what occurred on the water was but a part of an intersection of changing priorities in northeastern North Carolina.

Read the full story at Coastal Review Online