Saving More Than a Fish House

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By Heidi Jernigan Smith, Photos by Susse Wright, 7/2007

Casting a Wide Net

A commercial fisherman without a fish house is like a farmer without a grain bin. And time is of the essence when you are battling the threat of rising temperatures. One degree over posted regulations and every bit of the commercial fisherman’s catch must be pitched. With the fish house closed, the Ocracoke fleet shrank to virtual non-existence. Those who did stay on motored northward to unload their precious cargo, the additional fuel charges sucking up their already dwindling profits. The time and fuel they spent seeking fish houses farther away could have been used in the fishing grounds. The closing also meant no dockside source of ice, and with each trip requiring 400 pounds of ice, both the commercial and recreational charter boats were left scrambling for cubes. To top it all off, with less real fishing activity on the docks, Ocracoke’s lucrative tourism identity as a “quaint fishing village” was in serious jeopardy.
The irony was not lost on Robin Payne. Moving to the island in 2003, Payne had left behind a Washington, D.C., career in construction management. In her short time on the island she sensed the impending losses facing the community and culture and wondered what, if anything, she could do. She found encouragement from local captain Rudy Austin who, as his wife tells it, “is good with women.” Actually Cap’n Rudy is good with all audiences and is often the island’s spokesperson on everything from mosquito control to island history.

Robin began taking cues from Karen Willis Amspacher, who had successfully established the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center, Down East at Harkers Island. She garnered enough local support to begin forming the Ocracoke Foundation. The non-profit organization’s long-term goals include employment diversification, affordable housing, funding for youth programs and cultural preservation through education and research.
Foundation organizers met with the fish house owner who agreed to a one-year buy-out if the group could raise $325,000. In the meantime the fish house was re-opened as the Ocracoke Seafood Company and managed by the fishermen themselves who had formed the Ocracoke Working Watermen’s Association (OWWA). Today more than 30 fishermen belong to the association. The youngest member is 13-year-old Morty Gaskill, who has had a commercial fishing license since the age of 9.

Gone forever are the days of Ocracoke fishermen working in total isolation of one another. For the fish house to succeed, and if the fishing families hope to continue to do the work they love so well, even when it doesn’t love them back, the fishermen must routinely meet to decide on business plans and fundraisers. It’s Fish House Economics 101, and neighboring communities struggling to save their own fishing traditions are keeping a watchful eye on this burly bunch to see what lessons can be learned.

Turns out it was perfect timing. The North Carolina General Assembly dispatched a Waterfront Access Study Committee to develop a plan of action for the state. All along the coast in recent years the traditional waterfront activities—buying and selling fish, tending to working boats and their crews, fetching and delivering boat passengers, serving families who wander onto piers to drop a hook and line into saltwater—have been fading behind the shadows of shiny new condominium and marina developments. OWWA member Hardy Plyler served on the Waterfront Access committee. From Gates County, Hardy became a Morehead Scholar, graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1972 with a degree in American Studies and moved to Ocracoke to work as a commercial fisherman. He serves reluctantly as fish house manager. He’d much rather work his fishing nets than work the network of agencies that have a hand in the fate of the fish house.

Through fundraisers and educational events, OWWA raised almost $70,000, still a far cry from the owner’s asking price. With a plan that calls for expanding and upgrading the fish house, the group cast a wide net looking for funding sources. The island’s Touchstone Energy cooperative, Tideland Electric Membership Corporation, was one of the first to respond. Tideland EMC has applied to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for a $100,000 grant that would in turn be loaned to the foundation at zero percent interest. As Tideland’s chief executive officer Bill Stacy explains, “Upon repayment, the monies will establish a revolving loan fund that we can in turn use for other economic development projects.”
Hyde County government provided financing needed to fill the gap and meet the fish house owner’s June 1 deadline. North Carolina General Assembly Representatives Tim Spear and Arthur Williams introduced an appropriations bill on behalf of the fish house which, if passed, will secure the fleet’s home for the next 70 years.