Tag Archives: Mark Vrablic
North Carolina’s Deadliest Inlet
On a sunny day in late January, the commercial fishermen hanging around Etheridge Seafood in Wanchese shared their inlet horror stories.
In March 2024, two fishermen and a dog set out south from Virginia Beach on a 35-foot Scopinich boat. Both were seasoned mariners—one of them, Charlie Griffin, even starred in Wicked Tuna, a reality television show about daring bluefin anglers. That day, Griffin and his friend, Chad Dunn, had been hired to deliver a boat to Manteo, on the northern tip of Roanoke Island. To reach the island from the open Atlantic, sailors must navigate through Oregon Inlet, a 3-mile-wide stretch of sea that separates Pea Island from Bodie Island on the Outer Banks. Oregon Inlet is infamous for its treacherous waters, and that night, changing tides had made it much rougher than the open sea. But Griffin had been navigating it since he was 9 years old. He grew up in Wanchese, a fishing village on the south side of Roanoke Island and had piloted everything from skiffs to 60-footers through the inlet. So, when Griffin and his dog, Leila, failed to show up that night, his family in Wanchese didn’t worry at first. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:48
For troubled Outer Banks commercial fishing industry, Coronavirus is one more blow. Louisiana, too.
At the state and federal level, increasing regulatory requirements and catch quotas, fueled in part by aggressive lobbying of elected officials by the well-funded recreational fishing industry, have caused even more commercial fishermen to leave the industry. And now COVID-19 strikes another blow to the solar plexus of an industry that, no pun intended, can barely keep its collective heads above water. And interviews with two local operations — of distinctly different sizes — help shed light on how the COVID crisis has affected the Outer Banks’ commercial fisheries. Mark Vrablic of the Willie R Etheridge Seafood Company, one of the last remaining large-scale seafood distributors in Wanchese, minced no words when he described the losses created by the worldwide pandemic. >click to read< 19:15
Shrimp industry in Louisiana hit hard by Coronavirus pandemic – Shrimp processors are shut down and the baskets that are usually filled are empty. Brown shrimp season started on Monday, and so far it hasn’t been good. “Absolutely terrible, last year I had 42 boats going out during brown shrimp season, this year I only have 9 boats,” said Craig Napoli, C&A Seafood. >click to read<
