Saving Seafood

NORTH CAROLINA: On the Outer Banks, a shrimp ban would rewrite menus — and livelihoods

August 8, 2025 — In a kitchen that runs on the tide, Vicki Basnight’s crew was cleaning 300 pounds of shrimp ahead of the dinner rush. Basnight, who calls herself the “jack of all trades” of the restaurant, has spent three decades serving North Carolina seafood at Basnight’s Lone Cedar Café and, each fall working the water herself.

“I also do commercial fishing during shrimping season,” she said. “We are a rare breed that still commercial fish as women. To me, it’s in my blood.”

As lawmakers in Raleigh debate whether to restrict shrimp trawling in inshore waters, Basnight says the fight is personal. The shrimp she buys is harvested in the same sounds she grew up on.

“I love it. I love every bit of being on the water. It’s not like work to me,” she said. “It’s always been in the Roanoke Sound and that’s just been a passion of mine. It’s heritage. Really, everything I learned, I learned from my granddad.”

That heritage, and the local supply chain it supports, was thrust into uncertainty this summer when a last-minute amendment in the General Assembly sought to ban shrimp trawling in North Carolina’s sounds and within a half-mile of the coast. The measure, which supporters said would protect fish habitat, passed the Senate but stalled in the House. Senate leader Phil Berger has said the push is not over.

Read the full article at WRAL

NORTH CAROLINA: Outer Banks shrimpers anxiously await fate of trawling ban in NC House

June 23, 2025 — Outer Banks commercial shrimpers will be waiting until next week to learn the fate of a bill in the North Carolina House of Representatives that could potentially destroy their business.

An amendment inserted unexpectedly into HB 442 last week set off a firestorm in coastal communities that harvest the majority of the state’s wild-caught shrimp.

The new language, added to what was originally a bill focused on expanding recreational fishing access to flounder and red snapper, calls for a ban on shrimp trawling in all of North Carolina’s inland waters and within a half mile of the Atlantic Ocean shoreline. “You’d be wiping out almost a whole industry,” said Steve House, chairman of the Dare County Commission for Working Watermen, which met in a special meeting on Thursday June 19 to discuss the bill.

In a later interview, House, who is vice chair of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, confirmed that HB 442 would likely be voted on in the NC House on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday next week.

“They haven’t put it on the calendar yet,” he said.

Although he believes it will be a close vote, House said he is reasonably optimistic that the controversial bill will fail. “I know our representatives up and down the coast have been working hard to get this bill squashed,” he said.  If the measure passes in the NC House, it will go to the desk of Governor Josh Stein, who House said would not be expected to veto it.

Read the full article at Outer Banks Voice

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

September 16, 2020 — 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.

“Hurricanes 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,” 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 — Two mariners were 15 miles off Cape Lookout — on North Carolina’s Outer Banks — 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 Guard’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 — by tickling them

October 18, 2019 — 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 “has shown promise in the laboratory,” is reportedly ready to start pilot testing off the Outer Banks.

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

The device could also help fishermen save time and money. Sharks like to chomp on fish while they’re hooked — 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 — 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.

“If this works it will be huge,” said Outer Banks fisherman Charlie Locke. “It could benefit fisheries all over the world.”

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.

“We already know there is a healthy population here,” Locke said.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot

Hurricane Dorian lands a punch on Outer Banks

September 11, 2019 — Almost a year to the date after Hurricane Florence wreaked havoc in North Carolina’s fishing communities, Hurricane Dorian started its march toward the same target.

The week-long trek up the Southeast coastline had North Carolina’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 Carolina’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 — Seagrass is more plentiful within the North Carolina Outer Banks than along any other eastern state’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 — Fishermen along the Outer Banks say there are too many sharks in North Carolina waters, so, WNCT’s Dillon Huffman asked the question: is the fact that there are so many sharks, contributing to the number of attacks we’ve seen.

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

Fishermen in the Outer Banks say not really, they said they’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.

“I love it, you get paid to fish,” said Clifton.

He fishes for tuna on the Sandra D but said in the last few years he’s noticed a problem.

“As soon as the rod comes up, the sharks are waiting, when a tuna starts struggling, the sharks just wolfpack them,” said Clifton.

Holton said there are too many sharks in North Carolina waters and that’s due to there being so many rules and regulations when it comes to fishing for sharks most fishermen don’t even bother.

“It makes it hard for us, you get a bunch of heads back to the boat, hahaha that ain’t no fun for nobody,” said Clifton.

Read the full story at WNCT