Tag Archives: Outer Banks
Making A Name In Outer Banks Seafood – Vicki Basnight is carrying on the family legacy, one catch at a time
When you pick up the specials list at the Lone Cedar Café in Nags Head, it’s hard to miss Vicki Basnight’s name. On a spring night during the short soft-shell crab season, her name is on it four times, not just as co-owner of the restaurant she opened 27 years ago with her parents, Marc and Sandy, but also as the crabber for the fried soft-shell crab bites appetizer, the fried soft-shell platter with French fries and coleslaw, the soft-shell crab and shrimp pasta, and the stuffed softshells filled with mounds of flaky white crabmeat. Truthfully, she gets a little embarrassed about it. But there are other names on the menu, too: Luke Midgett, who traded another fisherman for the rockfish, Boo Daniels and Joe Elms, who caught the tuna used in two different dishes. Photos, >click to read< 13:27
Outer Banks Seafood Festival Endowment Created
The Outer Banks Community Foundation is pleased to announce that the Outer Banks Seafood Festival Endowment has been established by the Outer Banks Seafood Festival Board of Directors. The Outer Banks Seafood Festival is a nonprofit organization that promotes the positive impacts of our local seafood industry, educates people about seafood indigenous to North Carolina and the Outer Banks, and provides need-based support to the local fishing community and its members through festival proceeds. The endowed, designated fund will be maintained to support the Seafood Festival and its philanthropy. >click to read< 17:38
Fishing trawler aground in rough seas in OBX Tuesday morning – Four fishermen rescued
A fishing trawler grounded in rough seas in the Outer Banks Tuesday morning. Four crew members from the F/V Bald Eagle II was airlifted a Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter from Station Elizabeth City. The F/V Bald Eagle II is a 78-foot-long steel-hulled trawler. >Video, click to read< – Coast Guard rescues four from disabled vessel off Southern Shores – According to USCG Petty Officer Stephen Lehmann, the call came in after the Bald Eagle II had become disabled and was drifting closer to shore. >click to read< 12:21
Grounded fishing vessel stranded at Cape Hatteras National Seashore is now free
A fishing vessel previously grounded at Cape Hatteras National Seashore is now free. Officials posted about the stranded fishing vessel on Monday, although it is unclear how long the vessel has been grounded in the Seashore. The vessel named F/V Jonathan Ryan was found near off-road vehicle ramp 48 which is approximately 1.25 miles southeast of the Frisco Campground. >click to read< 08: 46
UPDATED: Fishing trawler aground near Frisco
A fishing trawler has run aground on the Outer Banks. The Cape Hatteras National Seashore says the F/V Jonathan Ryan is stuck in the surf about a mile south of the Frisco Campground. The trawler is 65 feet long and weighs some 113 tons. >click to read< and Fishing Vessel Grounds At Cape Hatteras National Seashore – National Park Service staff are monitoring a commercial fishing vessel that grounded at Cape Hatteras National 
Seashore (Seashore). The F/V JONATHAN RYAN is located near off-road vehicle ramp 48, approximately 1.25 miles southeast of the Frisco Campground. >click to read<, 11:55 Fishing trawler runs aground along southern Hatteras Island – The Jonathon Ryan fishing boat ran aground near Frisco NC. I have no information n what happened but there are still people on the ship and I’m sure it will get pulled back out. Authorities are on the scene. Video, >click to read< 13:29
Outer Banks shipwreck being removed from the beach
Cape Hatteras National Seashore this week began a $295,000 removal of the F/V Ocean Pursuit, a 72-foot scallop trawler that ran aground 18 months ago on the beach near Oregon Inlet.,,, On Monday, Cape Dredging, Inc. of Buxton began digging out the accumulated sand around the trawler and will eventually cut up the remains into smaller, “more manageable” pieces, which will be placed on a tractor-trailer and hauled away for appropriate disposal. >click to read< 12:53
Shipwrecked Scalloper at Outer Banks set for removal
Officials say that work will soon begin to remove a shipwreck at the Outer Banks. A scallop boat called F/V Ocean Pursuit, also known as Cameron Scott, ran aground March 1, 2020, and is now deep in the sand. The crew was rescued. A dredging company from Buxton will begin a nearly $300,000 project on Monday, video, >click to read< 11:10
1,500 Wind Turbines. 2,700 Square Miles. Atlantic Offshore Wind Farms Will Be Big.
American offshore wind farms, (built of foreign components) of which there are 17 in the works for the Atlantic Ocean, are no longer far off on the horizon. Dire predictions of climate change and how to most quickly pivot to clean energy have fueled the embrace of offshore wind. And while most stakeholders seem on board with the nearly Eiffel Tower-sized turbines, the fishing industry remains a holdout. Meanwhile, the cumulative effect of so many turbines spread across the Mid-Atlantic Bight remains unknown. The bight stretches from the Outer Banks of North Carolina to the Gulf of Maine. video, notable quotes, >click to read< 10:50
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<
Hurricane Dorian: Outer Banks rallies to recover after hit, Damaged Historic Structures, Changed the Coastline
Power is nearly restored to everyone on the Outer Banks after Hurricane Dorian, but there’s still a long road ahead before things are back to normal for residents. >click to read< 15:03
Hurricane Dorian Damaged Historic Structures and Changed the Coastline Along Parts of North Carolina’s Outer Banks – >click to read<
“I’m not going to let you die:” Hurricane Dorian flood rose into Ocracoke like a tsunami – >click to read<
Hurricane Dorian picks up speed as it moves away from the North Carolina coast
Hurricane Dorian was speeding up Friday afternoon as it moved farther away from the North Carolina coast,,,The storm sped up to 24 mph as it continued moving northeast away from the mid-Atlantic states toward Nova Scotia, which is expected to feel hurricane-force winds this weekend,,,The center of the eye passed the Outer Banks off the North Carolina coast at 8:35 a.m >click to read< 19:08
Trawlers catching “unheard of” amounts of shrimp off Corolla
South of the Virginia border, the shores off Corolla have become an Outer Banks hot spot to catch winter shrimp. Trawlers have clustered there within 3 miles of shore in recent weeks, each bringing in as much as 20,000 pounds of the delicacy per trip. Last week, the “Capt. Ralph” hauled in 30,000 pounds, the most ever for the crew, said Ashley O’Neal, manager of O’Neal’s Sea Harvest. In the past, 12,000 pounds was a good catch no matter where it came from, he said. “This 30,000-pound stuff is unheard of,” O’Neal said. “We are seeing a lot of shrimp.” >click to read<17:04
Sharks have been a major disruption for fishermen off the Outer Banks this year
Sharks are chomping the catch of the day. Fishing off the Outer Banks has been great this year, especially with big hauls of tuna. But boat captains are losing from one or two to 20 fish a day to the opportunistic predators. Able to smell, hear or sense the struggling fish from miles away, sharks come like a pack of wolves. In some cases, anglers are reeling in nothing but the head. “You can’t even get a fish to the boat,” said Jack Graham, first mate on the Fintastic, a charter boat based at Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. “You get a bite and look back and there’s just a big cloud of blood.”Sharks are taking the catch along with thousands of dollars in fishing gear, he said. click here to read the story 16:00
Bluefin tuna sighted early in season off Outer Banks
Bluefin tuna season is here again, traditionally running from November through March, sometimes into April, and there have already been landings in Carteret County, as well as some anecdotal reports of the prized commercial fish showing up off the Outer Banks. Bluefin tuna are a sought-after commercial finfish for sushi, and individual fish can sell for several thousand dollars on the international market. Matt Frost, owner and operator of Homer Smith Seafood in Beaufort, said as of Wednesday he’s had about 6,100 pounds of bluefin tuna landed at his fish house. Read the article here 20:20
Outer Banks fishermen reeling in half-eaten fish
The fishermen say strict shark fishing laws that went into effect years ago are part of the problem. Now, the sharks are overpopulated. All those sharks are now the fishermen’s competition. “Some sets we don’t get a fish back. We might catch 25 or 30 heads. Pieces where everything is gone. It’s literally costing thousands and thousands out of my pocket,” Hopkins said. Video, Read the rest here 09:48
A day fishing for crabs in the Outer Banks
Trim with weather-beaten skin, Mitchum, 52, wears khakis, a white tee, and a black visor pulled low on his brow. He reflects a shift in the traditional fishing industry. In response to shrinking stocks and falling prices, Mitchum has expanded his commercial shrimp and crab operations to become OBX Crabbing and Shrimping Charters, which includes hands-on 2-hour and half-day educational charters ($300 to $475 for groups of 6). Read the rest here, 10:12
