With Marine Fisheries Commission in town, Outer Banks residents speak out

KITTY HAWK, N.C. — The fishing industry is paramount to the Outer Banks.

“How important is fishing to Dare County? Prior to 1980 nothing here in Dare County was even built without a commercial fishing dollar associated to it,” said Steve House, vice-chairman for the Dare County Board of Commissioners.

Micah Daniels’ connection to the fishing industry goes back nearly a hundred years.

“My great grandfather started a Fish Company in 1936, my grandfather took it over in 1948 and they sold it in 2015 and in 2016 my husband and I started a fish house,” said Daniel, who was born and raised in Wanchese.

But that lifestyle has come with its challenges.

“There’s not as many young people getting into the field, but the challenges are the huge regulations placed upon these men,” said Daniels.

The Marine Fisheries Commission made their way to the Outer Banks this week for a quarterly meeting. At Wednesday night’s public comment, hearing frustrations from a number of locals who have made the commercial fishing industry their livelihood.

“Unfairly and unjustly cutting the commercial fishery harvest directly affects food security, the local seafood supply chain and businesses,” a statement from NC CATCH said in part.

One topic spoken about Thursday morning was another amendment to the Southern Flounder Management Plan. State leaders made a decision years ago to rebuild the population.

“In order to rebuild the stock to a sustainable population, we had to take a 72% reduction in catch. We are one of the major players, are really the biggest player for the southern flounder fishery on the coast,” said Anne Markwith, a species lead for Southern Flounder with the NC Department of Environmental Quality.

Specifically for flounder, the decisions have shifted the allotment for catches to go from 70/30 in favor of the commercial industry, to a 50/50 split that could be accelerated and start this year, instead of in 2026. The commission voted 5-4 in favor of pushing an amendment to the advisory committee and public review which will happen in April.

“A bad part of that is, that cuts out our commercial fishermen, their way of life,” said House.

For those at the state, though they have heard from OBX fishermen that the flounder species specifically is abundant, they say it has not recovered entirely and more opportunities will come when they see that happen.

“The way that access is going to increase for everybody is through a recovered stock, and management is intended to grow that stock and recover that stock. Once that happens, then we can look at expanding the opportunities for recreational and commercial fishers,” said Daniel Zapf, a Fisheries Management Plan coordinator with NCDEQ.

But for now, locals in the fishing industry feel it’s an uphill climb.

“It’s sad for our industry in terms of historically and our heritage. It’s really challenging in terms of consumers. Who is going to provide a healthy, clean protein for people’s plates, if you don’t live on the water, if you don’t have a boat, if you don’t have access to the water,” said Daniels.

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