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A Forgotten People: Bohemian oyster shuckers on NC coast

by David Cecelski on August 26, 2024 | Reprinted from Coastal Review

Editor’s note: Coastal Review regularly features the work of North Carolina historian David Cecelski, who writes about the history, culture and politics of the North Carolina coast. More of his work can be found on his personal website.

The Thomas Duncan oyster cannery in Beaufort 1900-1910. Duncan employed legions of African American shuckers, but also recruited large numbers of “Bohemian” immigrants — Czechs, Poles, and other Central and Eastern Europeans — to work at his cannery. Courtesy, H.H. Brimley Collection, State Archives of North Carolina

I first learned about the Bohemian oyster shuckers who used to work in North Carolina’s oyster canneries almost 40 years ago. I was living in Swan Quarter that winter, and I still remember how surprised I was when some of the old timers told me how, when they were young, Bohemian immigrants would come from Baltimore and work in a local cannery. At the time, I wondered how they had come to be there, and what their lives had been like, and where else, besides Swan Quarter, they might have gone. Many years have passed since those days in Swan Quarter, but I thought maybe it was time to see if I could discover their story. Here is what I found out.

From 1890 until at least 1914, thousands of central and Eastern European immigrants worked in oyster canneries on the North Carolina coast. Typically recruited by “padrones,” or labor agents, in Baltimore, they all came to be known as “Bohemians,” though they had actually immigrated to the United States from many different parts of Europe. They included men, women and children, all of whom, except for the youngest children, shucked and canned oysters. An unknown number of the men also worked on oyster boats. Many had actually come from Bohemia, a land of low mountains and plateaus in what is now the Czech Republic. More, however, had left homes in other parts of Europe to come to America.

The immigrant ships Braunschweig and Nova Scotia docked at Locust Point, Baltimore. Based on a photograph taken July 1884. Courtesy, Remembering Baltimore and Beyond

Among them were especially large numbers of Polish immigrants, but also Serbs, Dalmatians, and other Slavic peoples, Germans, and even Italians. 

For simplicity’s sake, I will also refer to this diverse group of immigrants as “Bohemians,” unless historical sources allow me to identify their nation of origin more precisely. 

By the mid-19th century, Baltimore, Maryland, had become the center of the nation’s oyster industry. But by the 1880s and 1890s, many of Baltimore’s oyster companies had begun to expand beyond Chesapeake Bay. They began to open canneries both on the North Carolina coast and as far south as Mississippi and Louisiana.

Immigrants arriving at Locust Point in Baltimore, 1900. After the Civil War, large numbers of European immigrants arrived in Baltimore. Many followed the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to Chicago, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri, while others made their homes in Baltimore, and some of those came to work in the oyster industry on the North Carolina coast. Courtesy, Maryland Historical Society

Many of those oyster canneries relied on immigrant laborers who had settled in Fells Point, Camden, and other waterfront neighborhoods in Baltimore, Maryland. Typically, they transported the Bohemian workers south by train, though some also traveled to the North Carolina coast by steamer. For a time, the Bohemian immigrants seemed to be in every town and village on the North Carolina coast. In my survey of coastal newspapers, I found the Bohemians working in oyster canneries in Elizabeth City, Swan Quarter, Belhaven, Washington, Morehead City, Beaufort, Marshallberg, Swansboro and Shallotte. I suspect that the Bohemians worked in other oyster ports on the North Carolina coast as well, but sources are scant — I cannot be sure.

Workers at an oyster cannery in Baltimore. From Harper’s Weekly Supplement, March 16, 1872. Courtesy, Maryland Center for History and Culture

In some other parts of the coastal South, the Bohemians are at least somewhat better remembered. But, on the North Carolina coast, they seem to have been completely forgotten. To my knowledge, no book, article, or museum exhibit — or blog, podcast or anything else — has ever told their story. Today I hope that I can take at least a small step toward changing that. By drawing especially on coastal newspapers, and with help from some wonderful librarians, archivists, and museum curators, I will try to sketch the best portrait I can of the Bohemian oyster shuckers and their lives on the North Carolina coast between 1890 and 1914.

At the John Boyle & Co.’s Cannery at Goat Island

One of the best accounts that I found of the Bohemian oyster shuckers here on the North Carolina coast comes from Elizabeth City, a town on the Pasquotank River, just north of Albemarle Sound, that was transformed by the boom in the oyster industry that began in 1890. In the spring of 1902, an Elizabeth City attorney and newspaper publisher named Walter L. Cohoon wrote an account of his visit to a large group of Bohemian immigrants that were living and working at the John Boyle & Co.’s oyster cannery on Goat Island. John Boyle & Co. was one of probably half a dozen or more Baltimore companies that had opened oyster canneries in Elizabeth City since 1890.

The company had first located in the town’s Riverside neighborhood, then moved to Goat Island, now called Machele Island, which is located just across the Pasquotank from Elizabeth City’s waterfront. Cohoon and a friend or two crossed the river in a skiff, then tied up at the oyster cannery’s wharf on Goat Island. Touring the cannery, they discovered a large force of Bohemian oyster shuckers, “four score of them,” as well as many local African Americans, hard at work. At that time, the John Boyle & Co.’s workers could, at peak capacity, shuck and can 15,000 bushels of oysters a month, which amounted to some 16,000 cans of oysters a day.

In his newspaper, the Tar Heel, Cohoon wrote, “We listened to the songs of the negroes and to the broken English of the foreign element until becoming tired we turned our attention to the Bohemian quarters.” They then walked next door to the barracks where the Bohemian workers and their families stayed during the oyster season. “Here,” Cohoon reported, ” … we found one long room with rows of bunks built along the sides of the building.”

Seasonal and migrant labor camps of that kind were not uncommon on the North Carolina coast in that day, but Cohoon does not seem to have visited any of them before.

“The members of a dozen families lay themselves down to sleep with not so much as a thin curtain separating their different births. The sons and daughters of different families cooped up in one small building like so many beasts is a condition of affairs that one can hardly believe, yet such is a fact, and they live peacefully together, never trespassing or intruding upon one another in any other manner.”

‘Two Trainloads of Bohemian Goat Islanders’ The Bohemian oyster shuckers on Goat Island continued to show up in the pages of the Tar Heel for another couple of years. The very next year, for instance, on April 10, 1903, the Tar Heel referred to the Bohemians while railing against a change in state law that regulated the oyster industry more closely. In that article, the Tar Heel warned Elizabeth City’s citizens that the new law would have a disastrous impact on the town’s economy.

The headline read:  “The Oysterman’s Boats are Idle and without Employment. TWO BIG CANNERIES SUSPEND. Several Hundred Bohemians go Home—Colored Laborers are Walking the Streets—and the Oyster Tongers are out of Pocket Money.”

The Tar Heel observed that oyster cannery owners had gone to a great deal of trouble and expense to “send a mass of Bohemian population from Maryland to North Carolina.” The newspaper then went on to say that local merchants would suffer if the Bohemian oyster shuckers left the North Carolina coast for good: “In Elizabeth City alone, an entire island colony have migrated to Baltimore this week, whose combined salaries were practically invested here and who might have gone this month into the pockets of our merchants.” The “entire island colony” was of course a reference to the Bohemian oyster shuckers at Goat Island. The paper continued: “The Boyle Oyster Canning Company suspended active business Wednesday the 1st. Monday April 6th two train loads of Bohemian Goat Islanders, left Elizabeth City for Baltimore, where they will engage in picking strawberries, or canning sundry goods.” That was actually typical. When the oyster season ended on the North Carolina coast, usually later in April, the Bohemian immigrants most often returned to Baltimore to work either in canneries there or in the fields of Maryland and Delaware that supplied the city’s canneries with fruits and vegetables.

The Song of the Oyster Shucker

According to newspaper accounts, the first Bohemian immigrants had come to work in Elizabeth City’s oyster industry in the latter part of 1890. In a December 1890 issue of another Elizabeth City newspaper, the Weekly Economist, I found an article that noted: “The oyster packing house of Wm. Taylor received 75 Bohemian laborers yesterday from Baltimore with their families…. There are about 25 women and 15 to 20 children.” At that time, oyster canneries and shucking houses were springing up along the North Carolina coast, but no place more so than in Elizabeth City.

Oyster dredging on Pamlico Sound 1900. From Caswell Grave’s “Investigations for the Promotion of the Oyster Industry in North Carolina,” Washington, D.C., government printing office, 1904.

Two years later, the Weekly Economist Oct. 27, 1893, looked back wistfully at the prosperity and excitement that came to Elizabeth City during that first year or two of the state’s oyster boom. Pondering all of Elizabeth City’s history, the newspaper’s editor declared that he could only compare the impact of the oyster boom on the town to the days after the opening of the Dismal Swamp Canal in 1829.

Tonging for oysters, probably on Pamlico Sound, 1900. From Caswell Grave’s “Investigations for the Promotion of the Oyster Industry in North Carolina,” Washington, D.C., government printing office, 1904.

Referring to the oyster boom, the newspaper observed:

“It was a jolly time—a new revelation. Population and money flowed in a perpetual stream and prosperity was felt in every fibre and pulsation of business.”

On one hand, he seemed anxious about the large influx of immigrants into what had been a relatively quiet southern town. “New people, new faces, new ways, new manners, almost destroyed the homogeneity of the population,” he wrote. On the other hand, the newspaper’s editor clearly found something intoxicating in that historical moment.

“The song of the oyster shucker was heard in the land, the refrain of its suggestive melody was joined by Bohemians, Hittites, Hivites, Jebezites, Virginians, Marylandros, and Afro-Americans, in happy harmony and peaceful intercourse.”

“Every Saturday night was a new and upward departure in business,” he exclaimed. “There was money and plenty of it in all hands.” While the local oyster industry never again reached the heights it did in 1890-91,  Elizabeth City remained home to oyster canneries well into the first decade of the 20th century, and Bohemian immigrants continued to make the journey from Baltimore to work in the town’s canneries. The John Boyle & Co. cannery continued to employ Bohemian oyster shuckers at least until 1903. According to the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia, “Bell’s oyster house” in Elizabeth City also employed “a large force of Bohemian oyster workers” in those first years of the 20th century. Other oyster canneries in Elizabeth City likely employed Bohemian immigrants as well, but I have not found any record of them doing so.

Beaufort, Morehead City and Marshallberg

Another part of the North Carolina coast where “the song of the oyster shucker” could be heard was Beaufort, a small town in Carteret County where local people had always made their livings from the sea. I found historical references to Bohemians working in Beaufort’s oyster canneries from 1890 to 1914.

An oyster cannery in Beaufort, 1900. From Caswell Grave’s “Investigations for the Promotion of the Oyster Industry in North Carolina,” Washington, D.C., government printing office, 1904.

In December 1890, for example, The Daily Journal in New Bern reported that a sizable group of Bohemian immigrants had passed through that coastal town on their way to a cannery in Beaufort. A few weeks later, a second group passed through New Bern. According to The Daily Journal Jan. 15, 1891, they arrived on the steamer, Neuse, then took a train east to Morehead City, where they could board a ferry for Beaufort.

The steamer Neuse 1900. From the Annual Catalogue and Announcements of New Bern Military Academy (New Bern, 1904-05)

Surveying the Bohemians passing through New Bern, The Daily Journal’s correspondent wrote:

“There were in all about 100 people, about 75 of whom were workers, the remaining 25 being children too small for labor. They were especially Poles and Bohemians, but there were a few Germans among the number. They appear to be quiet, industrious people, who will make desirable citizens.”

Over the years, large numbers of Bohemian shuckers worked in oyster canneries both in Beaufort and in other parts of Carteret County. For instance, a report in Washington Progress, Feb. 2, 1892, indicated that the North Carolina Packing Co. was employing Bohemians at its oyster cannery in Beaufort. Six years later, The Daily Journal in New Bern on Dec. 15, 1898, reported that Bohemian oyster shuckers were working at the A.B. Riggin & Co.’s oyster cannery in Marshallberg, a village 8 miles east of Beaufort.

“The steamer Neuse brought in quite a passenger list yesterday, the large number being Bohemians of all ages, from infants in arms to grandmothers. The crowd were from Baltimore…. [and] were engaged by the Oyster Canning Factory at Marshalberg, and will shuck oysters at the factory. There were 48 persons in the party.”

That same month, a Raleigh newspaper, Carolinian, reported Dec. 22, 1898 that “fifty foreigners” were shucking oysters at the Booth Packing Company’s cannery in Morehead City. Two years later, on Oct. 30, 1900, the New Berne Weekly Journal commented that “about 20 Bohemians” had passed through New Bern on their way to an oyster cannery in Beaufort.  “They came from Baltimore and were men, women, and children,” the newspaper observed.

This newspaper headline reflects one of the darker motivations behind recruiting Bohemian oyster workers on the North Carolina coast. Especially after the November 1898 Wilmington Massacre, many white business leaders specifically sought to undercut the economic independence and bargaining power of local Black workers by replacing them with “white” immigrants. This was also the case in agriculture, the lumber industry, railroads, and other industries. Source: The Carolinian, Raleigh, Dec. 22, 1898.

Polish Oyster Workers in Swansboro

At least for a time, in 1907 and 1908, Bohemian oyster shuckers were also working and living in Swansboro, an old seaport that is in Onslow County, just across the White Oak River from Carteret County. In Swansboro, the immigrant laborers worked at a cannery owned by a local merchant named Guy D. Potter. On Oct. 11, 1907, New Bern’s Daily Journal reported that Potter had gone to Baltimore to recruit “a hundred head of Poles as shuckers.” Six months later, on March 31, 1908, an article in the New Bern Weekly Journal indicated that Potter employed the Poles not only to shuck oysters, but also to harvest the oysters. We only know that was the case, unfortunately, because the newspaper reported that one of the Polish immigrants had a tragic accident while returning from the oystering grounds. According to the Weekly Journal, his sail skiff overturned and, unable to swim, he drowned. The report did not give the Polish oysterman’s name. It did however say that he left a wife and four children in Swansboro.

At Thomas Duncan’s Cannery in Beaufort

The last reference that I found to Bohemian oyster shuckers in Carteret County was in the April 4, 1914, edition of the New Bern Sun Journal. That article was brief. It indicated only that a Beaufort oyster cannery owner named Thomas Duncan had accompanied a large group of Bohemian immigrants back to Baltimore.

Cannery room, Thomas Duncan’s oyster factory, Beaufort, 1900-1910. Courtesy, H.H. Brimley Collection, State Archives of North Carolina

The Bohemians had worked for him that winter and were returning to Baltimore after finishing the oyster season in Beaufort. The article gave no more details. However, I found it especially interesting because several photographs at the State Archives of North Carolina show interior scenes of Thomas Duncan’s oyster cannery in Beaufort. One of those photographs, above, shows a group of women wearing dark hats and shawls in the oyster factory’s canning room.

Though badly out of focus, this photograph still gives us a unique view of Thomas Duncan’s oyster cannery around 1900-1910, this time featuring a foreman and a few of the company’s many African American workers. Courtesy, H.H. Brimley Collection, State Archives of North Carolina

Another photograph, at the top of the post, shows a long view of the cannery’s shucking room. I cannot say for sure, but I strongly suspect that at least the first photograph, and probably the second, portray Bohemian immigrants, as well as, in the case of the second photograph, African Americans. If that is correct, they may be our only surviving images of Bohemian oyster shuckers anywhere on the North Carolina coast.

‘Bohemian Headquarters’

Another, very different account of the Bohemian oyster shuckers on the North Carolina coast, comes from the Washington Gazette, a newspaper published in Washington. On Nov. 6, 1890, at the height of the oyster boom, one of the Gazette’s writers described his visit to what he called Washington’s “Bohemian Headquarters.” He was referring to an old school building on Third Street that had been converted into a migrant labor camp for the oyster season.

This detail from the 1901 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Washington, N.C., indicates a school in a Masonic Hall at the corner of Third and Bonner streets that may have been the site of the Bohemian workers’ quarters. Courtesy, North Carolina Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill

I do not know what the Gazette’s reporter expected to find at “Bohemian Headquarters.” Evidently it was not this:

“It was discovered that a fiddle and a banjo were employed in dispensing sweet music, while about two dozen gushing Bohemian maidens with pale-faced partners were tripping the regular old fandango in high glee.”

He must have gone there on a Saturday evening, after the oyster shuckers finished their shift at a local cannery. The Gazette’s correspondent apparently enjoyed his visit. He observed that “both men and women seemed courteous and kind.” He also mentioned in passing that he found some of the young women quite attractive, and he expressed some surprise at how many of the Bohemians were “conversing well in English.” He then went on to describe their living quarters:

“There are 63 quartered in the building which crowds it to its uttermost capacity…. The only furniture noticed were trunks or chests with one or two bedsteads. The balance of the sleeping paraphernalia consists of bunks in a continuous row from one end of the room to the other. There were four or five stoves placed about the room….”

Most likely, that group of Bohemian immigrants was employed at the J.S. Farren & Co.’s oyster cannery that was located on the town’s waterfront, near what is now the Children’s Park. Based in Baltimore, J.S. Farren & Co. had opened the cannery earlier that fall.

A very young boy at the J.S. Farren & Co.’s cannery in Baltimore, July 1909. At that time, child labor was extremely common in the oyster industry. It is very likely that the company also employed young children at its cannery in Washington. Source: National Child Labor Committee collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Another Baltimore firm, the H.J. McGrath Canning Co., also opened an oyster cannery in Washington that winter. However, its workers had not yet arrived from Baltimore at the time that the Gazette’s correspondent wrote his story. According to another local newspaper, the Washington Progress on Jan. 13, 1891, 100 Bohemian oyster shuckers arrived in Washington a week or two after New Year’s to begin work at the McGrath cannery. I do not know how many more years the Bohemians came to Washington. The last reference that I found to them in the town’s oyster industry was from the Washington Gazette on Feb 18, 1892.

Anti-immigrant Views

When he visited the “Bohemian Headquarters,” the Washington Gazette’s correspondent seemed to have been rather charmed by the oyster shuckers from Baltimore. However, I found a much different sentiment expressed in the Gazette the next year. At that time, an uncredited article on the Gazette’s front page had this to say about the Bohemian immigrants:

“The Bohemians are rapidly developing the innate cussedness of their true nature. They are a nuisance in the sections where they are located and the sooner Washington is rid of this very undesirable acquisition to her population the better pleased many of her citizens will be.”

Where that hostility was born, and why the Gazette’s view of the Bohemian oyster shuckers had changed so profoundly, is far from clear. Had some incident occurred that colored town leaders’ attitudes toward the immigrants? Or perhaps that comment reflected anti-immigrant or even anti-Catholic bias, both of which were on the rise in the U.S. at that time? Most of the Bohemians came from predominantly Catholic homelands. Or had cannery owners courted trouble by employing immigrant laborers instead of hiring local workers? Those are all possibilities, but I do not have anywhere near enough evidence to say more.

‘Now she now sleeps in quietude’

In that same year, 70 miles away, an even darker view of Washington’s Bohemian immigrants was expressed in the Perquimans Record, a newspaper published in the coastal town of Hertford.  On March 18, 1891, the Record noted that a train carrying Washington’s Bohemian shuckers back to Baltimore at the end of the oyster season had passed through Hertford. Referring to Washington, the newspaper’s correspondent wrote, “Our sister town has at last gotten clear of the dirty, ugly tribe, and now she sleeps in quietude.” I do not know what stirred the Perquimans Record to that level of maliciousness, but clearly some local people greeted the Bohemian oyster shuckers warmly and others did not.

At the Pungo River and Swan Quarter

Bohemian immigrants also worked in oyster canneries in the more remote coastal communities east of Washington. On Oct. 23, 1903, for instance, the Elizabeth City Tar Heel reported that  “two (train) carloads of Bohemians” were en route to Belhaven, 25 miles east of Washington. Beginning in the late 19th century, hundreds of oyster shuckers — one government report said as many as a thousand — left their usual homes and created what amounted to a here-today, gone-tomorrow boom town of oystering people there on the banks of the Pungo River.

An oyster shucking house in Belhaven, 1900. From the H.H. Brimley Collection, State Archives of North Carolina

Another 25 miles east, Bohemians were also shucking oysters in Swan Quarter, a village bordered by seemingly endless plains of salt marsh on the edge of the Pamlico Sound. I lived in Swan Quarter for a time when I was young, and I remember old-timers then telling stories about the Bohemian immigrants who used to come and shuck oysters there. However, the only newspaper account I found that mentioned those immigrant laborers concerned a brawl that broke out between them and local oystermen in February 1902. That story ran in several North Carolina newspapers, including the Kinston Free Press of Feb. 11, 1902:

“Some Bohemians, who are employed at the oyster canneries there, were having a dance, when the crews of several [oyster] dredges came ashore and attempted to take charge of the dance.”

The story continued:

“A general fight ensued, and when the smoke of the battle cleared away it was found that 13 people were wounded, seven of them seriously, four badly cut and three shot.”

Whether that incident was rooted in tensions between locals and immigrants or was just a run-of-the-mill dance hall fight — fights were almost a Saturday night ritual in some coastal villages — I do not know. All I can say for sure is that if the fight had not made the news, I would not have found any written evidence of Bohemian oyster shuckers ever living and working in Swan Quarter.

By the Calabash River

The last incident involving Bohemian oyster shuckers that I want to mention comes from the quiet salt marsh creeks located below Shallotte, 50 miles southwest of Wilmington. The exact location of the oyster cannery where the Bohemians worked there is somewhat uncertain, but as best I can tell it was 12 or 13 miles below Shallotte, in the vicinity of the Calabash River. According to several articles that ran in the Wilmington Morning Star in December 1907, 60 Bohemians — actually Poles, by all accounts — were recruited in Baltimore and transported to the A. B. Riggin & Co.’s oyster cannery on that part of the North Carolina coast. Copies of the articles are in the Brunswick County Historical Society’s newsletter of April 2007. Things must have been bad at the cannery. Only a few days after arriving there, half of the Polish workers gathered whatever possessions they had and left. According to a Dec. 1, 1907, account, they had found “the pay and conditions” at A.B. Riggin & Co. intolerable. They did not have an easy time getting back to Baltimore. Some walked all the way to Wilmington. Others somehow got passage to Wilmington aboard a steamer called the Atlantic.  According to the Wilmington Morning Star, the Poles spoke little or no English, and they seem to have been penniless. When they reached Wilmington, they had no place to stay, so town leaders let them bed down for a few nights first at the police station, then at City Hall. Many stayed in Wilmington for a time and took temporary jobs at a local lumber mill. Others did farm work. A few chopped wood and did other odd jobs around the seaport. As best I can tell, they probably worked just long enough to earn passage home to Baltimore. Four or five other Poles got home by taking passage aboard “the leaking schooner Grace Seymour in exchange for manning the pumps on the voyage North,” a grueling job if ever there was one.

Remembering the Bohemian oyster shuckers

The history of these Bohemians immigrants — these Czechs, these Poles, these Slavs, Italians and others —  is remembered at least somewhat better in other parts of the American South. To an important degree, that is because of a child labor investigation more than a century ago. Between 1909 and 1916, a social reformer named Lewis Hine documented “Bohemian” and local children, both Black and white, in oyster and shrimp canneries in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina.

Oyster shuckers, including many young children, at the Dunbar, Lopez, & Dukate Co.’s cannery in Dunbar, Louisiana, March 1911. There is no reason to believe that child labor was any less common in North Carolina’s oyster industry. Photo by Lewis Hine. Source: National Child Labor Committee Collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Oyster shuckers in Dunbar, Louisiana, March 1911. The gentleman with the pipe is the padrone who recruited them in Baltimore. Photo by Lewis Hine. Source: National Child Labor Committee Collection, Library of Congress, Division of Prints and Photographs

Sephie, 10, and her mother, both oyster shuckers at the Maggioni Canning Co. in Port Royal, South Carolina, 1912. Photo by Lewis Hine. Source: National Child Labor Committee Collection, Library of Congress, Division of Prints and Photographs

Oyster shuckers at the Barn & Platt Canning Co., Bluffton, South Carolina, February 1913. Photo by Lewis Hine. Source: National Child Labor Committee Collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Manuscripts Division

Oyster shuckers, from left, Rosie Zinsoska, Lena Krueger and Annie Kadeska, Pass Christian, Mississippi, Feb. 1916. Photo by Lewis Hine. Source: National Child Labor Committee Collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Working for the National Child Labor Committee, Hine used his photographs and reports to advocate for stricter child labor laws across the U.S. His photographs are powerful, and many, particularly those of the youngest workers, are unforgettable. They stunned many people when they first appeared in newspapers, magazines, and books. Now preserved at the Library of Congress, Hine’s photographs and investigative reports highlighted child labor in the South’s oyster industry. But they also brought public attention to the low wages, long hours, and often atrocious working conditions that shuckers of all ages, races, and backgrounds experienced in oyster factories at that time. In the parts of the coastal South that he visited, Hine’s work assured that the Bohemian oyster shuckers, and really all who worked in oyster canneries, would be remembered. Lewis Hine never visited the North Carolina coast, however. Without his work to remind us of them, all memory of the Bohemian oyster shuckers — and really all those who worked in North Carolina’s oyster canneries — gradually faded away here, then was lost. What I hope is that what I have written here today, however incomplete it is, might be the beginning of remembering them.

For their help with the research for this story, I want to express my deep gratitude to Stephen Farrell at the George H. and Laura E. Brown Library in Washington, N.C.; Ray Midgett of the Historic Port of Washington Project; David Bennett at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort (especially for his work on A.B. Riggin & Co.); and to my old friend Amelia Dees-Killette at the Swansboro Area Heritage Center Museum.  I also want to extend a special shoutout to my dear friend Bland Simpson for his lyrical evocation of Machele Island in “The Inner Islands: A Carolinian’s Sound Country Chronicle,” one of my favorite books.  If you want to learn more about the history of the state’s oyster industry, my essay “The Oyster Shucker’s Song.” might be helpful. And if you’d like to read more about the Bohemian immigrants in the South as a whole, I wrote a piece called “Shuckers and Peelers”  for Southern Exposure magazine many years ago that you might find interesting.  I dedicate this story to the memory of one of my ancestors on the Polish side of my family, my great-uncle Peter, a lobsterman who lost his life at sea. 

Who’s behind the oysters we eat?

by Allison Aplin on August 21, 2024 | Reprinted from NC Oyster Trail e-newsletter

The NC Oyster Trail showcases a diverse array of people who bring local seafood to your plate, including fishmongers, award-winning chefs, shellfish growers, and wild harvesters.

Who are our fishmongers? A fishmonger is someone who sells seafood, typically at wholesale or retail markets, and is trained in selecting, preparing, and merchandising this delicious source of protein.

Meet NC Oyster Trail fishmonger Captain Johnathan Mallette of
Southern Breeze Seafood in Jacksonville

Captain John Mallette is a native of Sneads Ferry and a commercial and charter fishing captain. He is also the co-owner of Southern Breeze Seafood, a seafood market in Jacksonville. Southern Breeze prioritizes fresh, local seafood and provides transparent sourcing information to help customers make responsible seafood choices. 

“Captain John is the epitome of southeastern North Carolina fishermen,” says Keith Rhodes, whose Wilmington restaurant Catch has been showcasing the chef’s own passion for North Carolina seafood since 2006. “He grew up in the industry and the lifestyle of a fisherman. I always saw him by the water, either on the docks or on the boats. He’s a real lifer in seafood.”

Oysters can be prepared so many different ways! NC Oyster Trail restaurants serve them raw, chargrilled, steamed, and roasted. Chefs enhance the flavor and presentation of oysters by adding their own unique ingredients and styles.

Meet NC Oyster Trail award-winning Chef Sunny Gerhart of
St. Roch Oyster Bar in Raleigh

Chef Sunny Gerhart was nominated for the James Beard Foundation’s “Best Chef Southeast” award in 2024. Since 2017, he has been bringing New Orleans-inspired flavors to Raleigh at his restaurant St. Roch Fine Oysters & Bar. In May 2024, Esquire named St. Roch one of the top oyster bars in America. It boasts the largest selection of oysters in our state’s capital!

Chefs wouldn’t have such a wide variety of N.C. oysters to choose from without the contributions of our shellfish growers. Oyster aquaculture, also known as mariculture or oyster farming, is essential to meet the demand for oysters in North Carolina, as there aren’t enough wild-caught oysters to satisfy this need.

Meet NC Oyster Trail shellfish grower Katherine McGlade of
Slash Creek Oyster Company on Hatteras Island

Katherine McGlade and her husband Spurgeon Stowe operate Slash Creek Oyster Company on Hatteras Island, where they are committed to creating a legacy of oyster farming as a vital industry in North Carolina. Their oysters are grown in exceptionally clean waters near the fishing village of Hatteras. They are nourished by the briny ocean and Pamlico Sound, which results in a unique flavor that is often praised. Slash Creek Oyster Farm also offers tours that include a ride on their oyster boat The Half Shell. Join them to learn about the farming process and see various stages of oyster growth.

NC Oyster Month is October 2024!

This is the perfect opportunity to meet the folks behind the Trail. We’ll be sharing our event list soon. Want to host an event? Fill out our event submission form HERE.

Please mark your calendars!

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Oyster Trail protects oyster habitat and grows economy

March 1, 2024 | Reprinted from NC Resilience Exchange

Project Purpose

Oyster harvest levels are decreasing. This decrease is the result of poor water quality, disease and predation, habitat loss, increased harvest pressures and natural disasters (North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, 2017). Severe storms can cause water quality impairments that force oyster harvesting to stop until the NC Department of Environmental Quality confirms that shellfish are safe to eat (North Carolina Coastal Federation, 2023). The North Carolina Coastal Federation, North Carolina Sea Grant and North Carolina Shellfish Growers Association launched the NC Oyster Trail in 2020 to diversify and expand the local oyster economy through tourism experiences.

Quick Facts

  • As of 2022, oyster harvest levels have decreased an estimated 80-85% from historic harvest levels. 
  • Hurricane Florence caused an estimated $10 million in damages to North Carolina’s shellfish aquaculture industry in 2018 (North Carolina Coastal Federation, 2021). 
  • In 2020, the North Carolina Coastal Federation, North Carolina Sea Grant and North Carolina Shellfish Growers Association launched the NC Oyster Trail. 
  • In 2021, the statewide Oyster Steering Committee released the 2021-2025 Oyster Restoration and Protection Plan for North Carolina: A Blueprint for Action (PDF). This “Oyster Blueprint” lists the trail as an opportunity to improve the marketing, promotion and distribution of shellfish products. 
  • The NC Oyster Trail and other Oyster Blueprint initiatives increased the amount of attention and funding for North Carolina oysters. This funding helped restore 450 acres of oyster habitat (North Carolina Coastal Federation, 2021).

What is the NC Oyster Trail?

The North Carolina Oyster Trail is a collection of oyster-related tourism experiences. The trail features shellfish farm tours, tasting events and educational opportunities. These events aim to help oyster farmers, harvesters and restaurants diversify their revenue streams. Diversified revenue streams help the industry withstand climate and non-climate stressors.

Why oysters?

Oysters are a critical part of North Carolina’s coastal economy and ecosystem. Oysters filter water, provide food for humans and create reefs that build homes for fish. These environmental functions support jobs and provide economic opportunities for coastal communities. In addition, climate change can challenge oyster harvests. More frequent and severe storms can destroy key business resources like gear and docks. Storms and saltwater intrusion from increased sea level rise can cause oyster mortality events.

Spotlight on Equity

One core goal of the NC Oyster Trail is to seek economic develop opportunities for less-economically-developed coastal communities (UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and NC Policy Collaboratory, 2018). In addition, trail administrators ensure a diverse group of stakeholders work together to build and support the trail. To increase its commitment to equity, trail administrators can ensure restaurants and farms owned by people of color are included in the trail’s tourism experiences, and that trail events are planned in partnership with diverse community representatives.

Aquaculture farmer and NC Oyster Trail member (Ghost Fleet Oyster Co.) sets up oyster growing cages. (Source: Justin Kase Conder) 

Making it Happen

  • In 2014, community members started discussing the idea of a North Carolina oyster trail after Virginia launched its trail. 
  • Trail partners worked with graduate students and professors at the UNC Kenan Flagler Business School. The academic partners recommended a structure and estimated the economic impact of the trail. (See the report PDF.) In 2018, trail partners presented this information to the North Carolina General Assembly. The state Senate included funding for the Oyster Trail in its 2017-2018 appropriations bill (General Assembly of North Carolina, 2017, p. 249). However, that funding was not included in the final state budget. 
  • The North Carolina Sea Grant funded a survey of tourists to understand their preferences for oyster tourism (Kozak, 2020). 
  • In 2019, the North Carolina Coastal Federation, North Carolina Sea Grant and North Carolina Shellfish Growers Association hosted stakeholder focus groups. They conducted these focus groups over a year-long planning period. They used stakeholder input to structure the NC Oyster Trail to meet the needs of potential members. 
  • Trail partners hired a private firm to design the trail’s webpage. 
  • They recruited an initial 10 NC Oyster Trail members from focus groups and by contacting oyster related businesses and organizations. To become a member, trail participants must offer a “memorable, participatory element that engages tourists with NC oysters.” Members must pay a $50 registration fee and an annual $100 membership fee (North Carolina Coastal Federation and North Carolina Sea Grant, 2023). 
  • The North Carolina Sea Grant promotes Oyster Trail members. The organization uses an interactive online map, social media, brochures, news releases, local visitor bureaus and the annual NC Oyster Week. 
  • In 2020, the North Carolina Coastal Federation, North Carolina Sea Grant and North Carolina Shellfish Growers Association launched the NC Oyster Trail.

Costs and Funding

  • The NOAA National Sea Grant provided the trail’s first major grant ($119,784) to fund the survey of tourists. 
  • Trail partners obtained additional grant funding to hire a private firm to design the trail’s webpage. 
  • State and regional tourism departments dedicate staff time and volunteer hours to support trail operations. 
  • Annual trail membership fees contribute to trail operations. 
  • The North Carolina Sea Grant and the North Carolina Coastal Federation continue to support the trail financially.

Outcomes

  • The NC Oyster Trail helps sustain and grow the local oyster industry by connecting seafood producers, sellers and consumers through shellfish farm tours; seafood restaurants, raw bars and markets; and educational opportunities with ecotourism, aquariums, coastal museums and special events. 
  • The trail helps build a state-specific brand that leads consumers to choose and pay more for North Carolina oysters, adding value to the shellfish product. 
  • The trail supports the coastal ecosystem with volunteer opportunities to protect and restore oyster habitat. 
  • The trail advances the business success of wild harvesters and oyster farmers. 
  • Increased attention on oyster programs builds the case for increased funding for oyster-related programs, including from the NC Division of Marine Fisheries Oyster Sanctuary Program. 
  • Overwhelming interest from stakeholders along the coast and inland grew the number of Oyster trail members to over 75 participants as of December 2022. 
  • Increased attention on North Carolina oyster populations, along with the support of other Oyster Blueprint initiatives, has:
    • Increased funding for oyster-related programs by a factor of 10, and 
    • Led to the restoration of 450 acres of oyster habitat, supporting half a billion oysters.
    • Led to the restoration of 450 acres of oyster habitat, supporting half a billion oysters.

Key Players

North Carolina Coastal Federation; North Carolina Sea Grant; North Carolina Shellfish Growers Association; and oyster farmers, sellers and educators

Advice from the Project Manager

Trail members are the backbone of the NC Oyster Trail. Communities seeking to replicate this project should devote significant time and resources toward building and sustaining stakeholder relationships during the planning and implementation phases. 

Forming a focus group composed of diverse stakeholders and at least one member from each type of trail organization or business is a great starting point. The focus group can ensure that the project meets their needs.

References

General Assembly of North Carolina. (2017). Session Law 2017-57; Senate Bill 257. Retrieved from https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2017/Bills/Senate/PDF/S257v9.pdf

Kozak, C. (2020, January 06). Effort On to Create NC’s First Oyster Trail. Retrieved from CoastalReview.org: https://coastalreview.org/2020/01/effort-on-to-create-ncs-first-oyster-trail/

North Carolina Coastal Federation. (2021, April 27). Oyster Restoration and Protection Plan for North Carolina: A Blueprint for Action 2021-2025. Retrieved from North Carolina Coastal Federation: https://www.nccoast.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Oyster-Blueprint-2021-2025-FINAL-web.pdf

North Carolina Coastal Federation. (2023, May 26). Oysters. Retrieved from North Carolina Coastal Federation: https://www.nccoast.org/protect-the-coast/oysters/

North Carolina Coastal Federation and North Carolina Sea Grant. (2023, July 18). Membership. Retrieved from NC Oyster Trail: https://ncoystertrail.org/membership/

North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries. (2017, February). North Carolina Oyster Fishery Management Plan Amendment 4. Retrieved from North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality: https://www.deq.nc.gov/marine-fisheries/fisheries-management/oyster/oyster-fmp-amendment-4

UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and NC Policy Collaboratory. (2018, May 17). Summary of Recommendations, North Carolina Oyster Trail and Oyster Festival. Retrieved from North Carolina General Assembly: https://webservices.ncleg.gov/ViewDocSiteFile/28091

MEET THE CHEF: COVEY RESTAURANT, WILMINGTON

Austen Schindler, a former finance major at UNCW, discovered his true passion in the restaurant culture. This love led him to transfer to culinary school at Cape Fear Community College, where he honed his skills. His journey took him from an internship at Pinpoint to the opening team at Covey. He recently assumed the role of Executive Chef, a testament to his unwavering dedication and passion for his craft.

May 10, 2024 | Reprinted from Cape Fear Living

What makes Covey unique?

When you walk into Covey, you feel like you’re in a different city. The building alone is a work of art. Upon sitting down in the dining room, one of our very attentive staff members greets you with complimentary homemade biscuits with honey butter. You can choose from our thoughtfully curated food and beverage menus, and have a wonderful evening. I truly believe there’s not another restaurant in Wilmington where you can have the same experience as Covey.

How would you describe the food you like to cook?

My style of cooking is elevated comfort food. We put a lot of time, care, and thought into our food here, and my goal is for people to feel like they’re having the home-cooked meal of their dreams.

What motivates and inspires you as a chef?

I believe in continuous growth through learning, whether from books, the people around me, or simply through experience. It’s a never-ending whirlwind of new ideas, wonderful people, and, of course, amazing food. Getting to put smiles on people’s faces through the process is a nice bonus.

What might diners not know about you? 

Most diners probably would not know that I am only 26 years old.

What is your current favourite dish on the Covey menu?

My favourite dish is our local catch served with cassoulet vert, bacon made from swordfish belly, a whole bunch of basil, and a preserved lemon and shallot conserve. It perfectly combines technique, thoughtful flavors, and local ingredients.

What’s your favourite local produce, and how do you use it on the Covey menu.

My absolute favourite ingredient we get is our local oysters from our friends at Three Little Spats. We serve them raw with seasonal condiments or baked with our Red Beard Farms collard green Rockafeller. On special occasions, you might even see some of them fried.

Favorite foodie city?

Charleston.

What’s your all-time best comfort food?

My mother’s fried chicken.

Describe the best meal you’ve ever eaten.

I was sitting outside, and I started with a negroni and a dozen raw oysters. Next was a delightful local seafood pasta, and I finished with one of each dessert. It was simple, fresh, and thoughtful. It was difficult to stand afterwards, but I’d gladly have that meal anytime.

3 Songs on your current playlist?

Make Peace and Be Free by Perfect Confusion

Crooks by Mike Pinto

Mr Rager by Kid Cudi 

What advice do you have for home cooks? 

Taste everything, and a little extra salt and butter won’t hurt.

Living in North Carolina: A Waterman’s Wisdom

At his seafood market in Jacksonville, a seasoned fisherman shows his customers that when it comes to our coast and the rich bounty it provides, the world is their oyster.

by Jason Frye on June 24, 2024 | Reprinted from Our State

Capt. John Mallette’s customers at Southern Breeze Seafood trust him to stock their kitchens with the week’s freshest catch. PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLES HARRIS

Southern Breeze Seafood has the clean, cold smell of an iceberg. Every day, the shop makes tons of the stuff, mounding cubes and chips into banks and ’bergs upon which the freshest of the fresh catch sits to tempt customers. Heaps of shrimp, their eyes black and oil-bright. Flounder in an orderly file. Rows of tuna steaks glowing with garnet light. A vermilion snapper, a school of spot, a rocky reef of oysters.

On the walls hang generations-old buoys and markers for crab pots, nets, and lines, their owners’ initials etched deep into the foam and cork bobbers. Baskets and shelves hold seasonings and seafood breaders, lemons and limes, corn and potatoes. Everything you need for a seafood feast.

Capt. John Mallette is passionate about expanding North Carolinians’ horizons beyond the fish they’re most familiar with.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLES HARRIS

What Southern Breeze Seafood doesn’t have is the odor of fish. Or cleaner or anything other than fresh. “A seafood market shouldn’t smell,” says Capt. John Mallette, a Sneads Ferry native, commercial and charter fishing captain, and co-owner of Southern Breeze Seafood. “When the seafood’s fresh, it smells like nothing.” He pauses, thinks a moment. “Maybe it’s kinda like an ocean breeze — a little salty but totally clean.”

If anyone knows about the salt-laced ocean breeze, about seafood, about the waters of North Carolina and the creatures that call them home, it’s John Mallette.

“Captain John is the epitome of southeastern North Carolina fishermen,” says Keith Rhodes, whose Wilmington restaurant, Catch, has been showcasing the chef’s own passion for North Carolina seafood since 2006. “He grew up in the industry and the lifestyle of a fisherman. I always saw him by the water, either on the docks or on the boats. He’s a real lifer in seafood.”

A shrimp boat travels the New River, masts spread wide like pelican wings, heading out to the ocean. A pair of trawlers stand tied to the dock, acres of red and green netting draping to their decks. Mallette watches from his booth at Riverview Café, surveying the waters where he learned the art of fishing, and pointing out the old-timers and anglers his age. He jokes that he’s been at this so long, he’s seen as an old-timer, too. He was raised on decks and docks, in fish houses and seafood markets, never far from the water, a fishing rod, the tiller of a boat.

“I was a dock rat,” he says. “Starting when I was 7, Mrs. Betty Warren would babysit me, and I spent many days at the feet of the women picking crabs and shucking oysters. Her husband, Preston, he’d take me out on his boat to shrimp. I fell in love with all of this early.”

In those days, there were more than a few shrimping and commercial fishing boats on the waters around Sneads Ferry. There were more seafood houses, too. Mallette learned to shuck and clean by watching those women and other locals. He eventually graduated from running errands suitable for a 7-year-old boy to heading shrimp and filleting flounder himself. That is, when he wasn’t culling a mess of shrimp on Preston’s boat, separating other sea life accidentally caught alongside the shrimp and tossing it overboard.

He was an apt pupil, soaking up stories and lore from the elder fishermen in the way that only young ears and a growing mind can. These men and their tales of sea and storm and days on the water filled his imagination, charting a path for the rest of his life.

In tribute to the watermen who taught them, they display Millis’s grandfather’s fishing net floats at Southern Breeze Seafood. PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLES HARRIS

Mallette fished. He shrimped. He dug for clams and harvested oysters. With Preston, with other Sneads Ferry fishermen, on the pier at Topsail Island’s Ocean City Beach, which at one time was the only place in North Carolina where Black people could buy seaside property. It was on the Ocean City pier where Mallette learned an important lesson.

“For a while, chefs and foodies were talking about ‘trash fish,’” he says skeptically, “but there’s no such thing as trash fish. There’s fish you know and fish you don’t know — that’s it. When I was young, I’d watch these old-timers on the pier pull up puffer fish and throw them on the boards to die — said they were no good.” He rolls his eyes. “I’d gather them up and take them home. Man, they didn’t know what they were missing.” The puffer fish in North Carolina aren’t the toxic fugu from Japan, which are dangerous or even deadly if prepared by the untrained. Mallette says that our puffers are “the true chicken of the sea. Easy to clean, easier to eat.”

Today, chefs have wised up to unfamiliar seafood, and the term “trash fish” has been replaced with “bycatch,” indicating that the species in question was an unintended catch. Mallette would like to see that term evolve, but more important, he wants to see people’s seafood-eating habits change. “My job is to educate people, to show them there’s more to eat than the six or eight species of fish they know,” he says. “I want to take these fish eaters and convert them into seafood lovers. I want folks to look at me like a butcher for seafood.”

Mallette has been on course for the life of a fisherman since boyhood, and by the time he was in 10th grade, he was earning real money — by his account, some $80,000 a year. His father died before Mallette could form memories of the man, so the money he earned helped the household immensely. Which led his mother to make a startling suggestion. “She knew I loved fishing and being on the water, and she knew school didn’t interest me much,” Mallette says. “So she encouraged me to drop out, fish full-time, and get my GED as soon as I could.” It was a bold move. He left school, spent days and nights on the water, and soon after his class graduated, he earned his diploma. “Six months later I was in Australia, a hired deckhand on charter fishing trips on the Great Barrier Reef.”

Australia. Costa Rica. Panama. The Caribbean. Hawaii.

But Sneads Ferry always called him home. There, he fished, he dreamed, he saw Sneads Ferry the way it had been: waters full of fishing boats, docks busy with watermen, seafood houses awash in fresh catch. He and partner Randy Millis opened Southern Breeze Seafood, selling to the public, a raft of lauded chefs — including James Beard nominees and winners like Chef Rhodes and Chef Ricky Moore — and restaurants from Charlotte to Raleigh to Charleston, South Carolina. Mallette and Millis launched a line of seafood breaders in partnership with Oriental-based Tidewater Grain Co. — a gluten-free, non-GMO product that Mallette uses on his own food truck.

Mallette and his business partner, fifth-generation fisherman Randy Millis, grew up on shrimp trawlers in Sneads Ferry. PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS COUNCIL

Yet even as Mallette worked to promote and celebrate seafood from the waters he knew best, he saw a gulf growing between customers and the local fishing industry. He wanted people to understand the difference between local, domestic, and imported seafood, and to grasp the positive economic impact that customers have when they buy from local fishmongers instead of big-box grocers. He wanted to raise awareness about how often seafood sold in the U.S. is mislabeled. He wanted to help his customers understand how to buy seafood and what questions to ask when they do.

So he embarked on a mission to educate the public. He was invited to speak on the Got to Be NC stage at the State Fair. He’s done the same at other events, including the Sneads Ferry Shrimp Festival, where he sits on the board. He’s also on the board of NC Catch, a seafood advocacy group.

“John has a real vision for North Carolina seafood,” Rhodes says. “His is an important voice in NC Catch because he’s young, visionary, and so knowledgeable when it comes to fishing methods, species, regulations, and real solutions. I think of him as the meeting point of North Carolina’s fishing past and its future.”

At Southern Breeze, Mallette lives up to Rhodes’s ideal. From behind the case of fish, he greets customers by name, conversing as he portions out a pound and scoops a little extra ice into a bag. He guides them to the freshest tuna that North Carolina’s waters can offer. He talks about spot that were swimming yesterday, about local fish frys, about the way things used to be. Even though Mallette says that he’s more comfortable on the water than behind the counter, he shines as he converts fish eaters to seafood lovers, a champion for a true taste of our state.

Southern Breeze Seafood
5138 Richlands Highway
Jacksonville, NC 28540
(910) 430-4289
southernbreezeseafood.com

Whether customers purchase their flounder from Southern Breeze Seafood or another fishmonger, Mallette wants them to be informed about what they’re buying. PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLES HARRIS

Six Pieces of Fish-Shopping Savvy

The butcher of seafood has advice for buying the best catch that you can find.

Develop a relationship with your local fishmonger and learn to trust them. “They know what’s fresh and in season, and they know how to cook it.”

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Where was this caught? When was it caught? When did you get it? “These are all good questions because they show the fishmonger that you’re serious and interested.”

Learn. Explore. Try. “Take a chance on a species you’re unfamiliar with. Try a new way to cook. Grab a whole fish if you never have. We seafood lovers, we love it when you’re curious.”

Look for the seal. BAP (Best Aquaculture Practices) and MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) certifications on imported seafood “indicate that the supplier used the best industry standards to farm-raise their seafood or responsibly and sustainably catch what’s on offer.”

If you have a question, ask for packaging. “Any true and honest fishmonger wants you to be knowledgeable about seafood, so when you wonder if that salmon really was wild-caught in Norway, ask to see the packaging or a label showing its origin.”

Don’t be afraid of frozen seafood. “Unless you’re catching it yourself, odds are your seafood was frozen. Flash freezers hit temperatures of -20˚ F, freezing the catch solid quickly and keeping it just-caught-fresh for up to a year. When seafood like this is thawed properly, it’s an outstanding product.”

In Raleigh, a New Inland Fish House Anchors North Carolina’s Seafood Industry

The seafood industry is largely decentralized. But a new Locals Seafood market and processing facility in East Raleigh is helping get seafood to more North Carolinians.

by Andrea Richards on June 12, 2024 | Reprinted from Indy week

Lin Peterson, the cofounder of Locals Seafood, starts our tour of the company’s new East Raleigh market and processing facility by pointing out the fishing village Wanchese on a mural of North Carolina. It’s the state’s hub for the commercial fishing industry that sits, somewhat precariously, on the southern end of Roanoke Island. 

The map isn’t detailed: it’s a large ocean-blue outline of the state that wraps around the corner of the building’s market space, unlabeled except for a small dot representing where we are now. 

Still, Peterson is able to demonstrate the morning’s pickups and deliveries on it, tracing the trajectory of the four trucks active today (the company has eight total). One truck is in Wanchese waiting on fish that may or may not be coming in from fisherfolk who navigate the dangerous Oregon Inlet to get it from the Gulf Stream to the shore. Another truck is picking up mariculture-grown oysters, moving between the 12 family farms that Locals works with. A third truck is on its way toward Asheville, and a fourth is taking sheepshead from Raleigh to Olivero, a Wilmington restaurant. 

Yes, taking Sheepshead back to the coast. As it turns out, thanks to the complications of geography and distribution, there’s no other way to get it there 

While Peterson is mapping these trajectories, Ryan Speckman, the business’s other cofounder works his phone nearby, finding out what fish came in and from where, buying from his network of fish houses, and moving the trucks around accordingly. It’s all happening in real time. 

“A normal seafood operation would just be Ryan on the market buying the fish people want—getting tuna 52 weeks of the year from somewhere in the world,” says Peterson. “The way we do it, Ryan’s more like a reporter of what’s happening on the coast, like a weather forecaster.”

This syncopated dance of boats, cell phone texts, and refrigerated trucks is what it takes to be one of the only seafood purveyors 100 percent focused on North Carolina product.

“It’s been our niche since we started,” Speckman says. 

I don’t know if it was intentional, design-wise, but the way that the map wraps around the room in this new market visualizes the problem Peterson and Speckman sought to alleviate when they started Locals Seafood 14 years ago: the coast on one wall, the Piedmont region and western North Carolina on the other. 

The work of Locals is in bringing the two back together. That’s what these complicated routes do, six days a week—reconnect the coast’s bountiful harvest to its inland inhabitants.

Ryan Speckman, the Locals Seafood co-owner, points out Wanchese on a map, a focal point in North Carolina’s commercial fishing industry, on Friday, June 7, 2024, in Raleigh.

For the uninitiated, prepare for a series of small shocks regarding the state of seafood: supply chain distribution is all over the map, quite literally. According to a recent New York Times article, 65 to 80 percent of seafood in the United States is imported, with exports netting around $5 billion a year. 

The industry is likewise decentralized in North Carolina. Most of the seafood caught off the Tar Heel State’s coast is sent north, following already well-established distribution routes. That means the seafood you scarf down at the beach likely isn’t from there, and the best place to find North Carolina blue crab might be Maryland. 

The realization that few folks in the state had access to North Carolina seafood is what inspired Speckman and Peterson to start Locals Seafood in 2010. The two met at NC State University studying fisheries and wildlife science. Over the past decade, they grew the business slowly, expanding from farmer’s markets to wholesale distribution services for grocery stores and restaurants. Along the way, they created seafood subscription services in Raleigh, Durham, and Asheville and opened two retail markets and restaurants—one in Raleigh’s Transfer Co. Food Hall (shuttered in 2022) and another in the Durham Food Hall.

Now, the new public-facing market in East Raleigh, which offers a stunning array of fresh and frozen seafood, as well as specialty items like dry-aged bluefin tuna belly and cured mullet roe, has a relatively small footprint in the renovated 10,000-square-foot building. Most of the building serves as the company’s whole-fish butchery and seafood processing house. There’s room for a potential restaurant too, but right now Peterson and Speckman are focused on processing and distribution.      

The new facility triples Locals’ capacity to process North Carolina seafood and consolidates its operations close to I-40. 

Location matters: Once you cut fish, the clock begins ticking. Processing near customers helps. An inland fish house like this market ensures that Locals can process and distribute seafood to more distant parts of the states, like Asheville, and still ensure the quality. 

Biologists and wildlife conservationists emphasize the importance of connectivity—corridors that species can move safely through so they don’t get stuck in the sort of isolation that leads to extinction. Locals gives North Carolina seafood a safe passage from its home on the coast to inland parts of the state—even though that path may at times look convoluted, like taking sheepshead fish from the coast to Raleigh and then back again. Centralizing the operations in one place allows suppliers to connect to purveyors and customers across the state. 

“We saw the writing on the wall years ago that to really do this correctly, we needed the proper facility,” Speckman says as we walk through the massive space. “And the proper facility is pretty much this.” 

Michelene King pulls bonitos from the ice before processing them at the Locals Seafood market. Photo by Angelica Edwards.

If seafood had a relationship status, it would definitely be “it’s complicated.” 

There are a number of nonprofit watchguard organizations that monitor sustainability nationally, and as far as the state’s supply goes, many regulations prevent overfishing. 

“Our commercial fishermen are great environmentalists—they want to see the continuation of the species,” John ​​Aydlett, a seafood marketing specialist with the NC Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, tells the INDY. In 2021, North Carolina’s wild-caught seafood industry contributed almost $300 million in value to the state’s economy and provided some 5,500 jobs. The state’s growing aquaculture industry brings in an annual revenue of $60 million. 

As a consumer, it can be hard to keep up with what best practices are: Wild caught? Farmed? Fresh? Frozen? 

“We always tell people that if you can’t find local seafood, the best rule of thumb is to buy domestic,” says Speckman, who has concerns about both the quality of overseas products and their social and environmental impacts. 

Of course, thanks to this new market—and Locals Seafood’s presence at area farmers markets, in stores (Durham Co-Op and Weaver Street Market), and as suppliers to restaurants—it isn’t as hard as it once was to get local seafood. 

(From left) Locals Seafood co-owners Ryan Speckman and Lin Peterson pose for a portrait. Photo by Angelica Edwards.

Just ask Andrea Reusing. The award-winning chef/owner of Chapel Hill’s Lantern Restaurant loves to tell folks how, when she first moved to North Carolina in 1999 and worked at Vin in Raleigh, she’d drive her station wagon to Tom Robinson’s in Carrboro twice a week to get a haul of local seafood.

“There was no east-west distribution of North Carolina fish,” Reusing says. “When I got NC fish from a purveyor, it would have gone up to the Fulton Fish Market in New York City, and then maybe gone down to Atlanta or through Charlotte before coming back. Before Lin and Ryan started Locals there was no other way to get local seafood—except for driving to the coast or maybe getting some through FedEx.” 

Right now Reusing features several items procured through Locals on the Lantern menu.

“We have three different kinds of oysters from three different family cultivators,” she says. “We have wild head-on shrimp and sheepshead, which is one of my favorite fish—it feeds on crustaceans, so it’s very rich and nutty.”

Not only has Locals helped solve a critical supply chain problem for inland restaurants and consumers, but it’s also helping to expand an appetite for seafood beyond the familiar standards of shrimp, salmon, and tuna. If you care about seafood sustainability, the best step is to eat a more diverse range of fish. 

When asked about his relationship with Locals Seafood, Ricky Moore, the James Beard Award-winning chef of Saltbox Seafood Joint, responds by emailing over a photo from 2013. 

Ricky Moore outside of the original Saltbox location in 2013. Photo courtesy of the subject.

It shows him in his trademark floppy fisherman’s hat outside the kitchen entrance at Saltbox’s original location, signing a receipt with a Locals delivery person. There’s a refrigerated box and cooler at Moore’s feet, and the men are framed by the two company’s vans parked side by side. For Moore, the photo speaks to the nature of a more than a decade-long partnership between a restaurant and a vital supplier.

“We’ve got history together,” he says, explaining that from the very beginning his concept for Saltbox—preparing the kind of local, seasonal seafood caught by North Carolina fisherfolk that Moore grew up eating in eastern North Carolina—necessitated a supplier with a similar vision. “Not too many people were doing it the way I needed it to be done to bring my restaurant concept to life.” 

When Moore first opened Saltbox, he installed a “Trust Me” board alongside his regular menu of seasonal items to help introduce patrons to less familiar fish species. 

“In the beginning when Lin and Ryan would bring me stuff like sheepshead, people would be like, ‘What is a sheepshead?’ Only folks who grew up eating stuff would know about it,” says Moore. He was happy to find a source that could supply an array of seasonal, local fish, and thus a symbiotic relationship between supplier and chef began: “I’d say, ‘Bring it to me, man, I’ll sell it.’”

“What’s being served in most places are things that people are culturally conditioned to eat. Everybody knows what salmon is, it’s been marketed to us as healthy. Omega-3s, yada yada,” Moore says. “I like to speak about whole fish: growing up in eastern North Carolina, we ate a whole lot of whole fish, smaller fish like croaker and spot. Unless you’re regionally connected to it as a part of your heritage, you would never see those fish on the menu. And why not? We should be eating them!” 

Moore doesn’t need his “Trust Me” directives anymore, and that’s not just due to the slew of awards he’s won: “I got my soldiers out there preaching the gospel—my customers are telling folks, ‘Yeah, go to Saltbox and try this!’” says Moore. 

It’s always been about more than just logistics—there’s an educational component to learning about local seafood that the lack of crucial infrastructure has only made more pressing. In the case of North Carolina seafood, most of us didn’t even know all that we were missing out on.

“Growing up in eastern North Carolina, we ate a whole lot of whole fish, smaller fish like croaker and spot. Unless you’re regionally connected to it as a part of your heritage, you would never see those fish on the menu. And why not? We should be eating them!” 

When I was growing up in the late 1980s and early ’90s in Apex, we got our shrimp from a man across the street from Holt & Sons Auto Repair who sold them, fresh from the coast, out of a cooler; in the fall and winter, the same spot was occupied by a different man selling chowchow from his pickup. If a special occasion merited shrimp, my mom knew where to go, just as she knew which farm stand to go to in the summer for fresh corn or squash. 

The popularity and proliferation of farmers’ markets helps, but finding these spots can be a long, often communal process: it’s tips from old-timers, trips to local markets and restaurants, and drives spent scanning the streets, circling back to check out a hand-written sign or curious-looking Quonset hut. 

Such stomach-led learning takes time—it’s something that gets shared through interpersonal connections, like generous friends or skilled guides like Moore, who brings it to the table with enthusiasm, knowledge, and trust. There’s a reason we don’t tell people we don’t like where our favorite restaurants are—not only do we not want to run into them, but we don’t want to mar the experience of something special with someone who isn’t. 

Locals Seafood’s expansion will allow outstanding chefs like Moore and Reusing to get the raw materials they need to fuel their creative visions, explore culinary traditions, and preserve cultural heritage. 

It will also help ordinary folks like me learn to cook a fish I’ve never seen before, even though it may have swum past me in a nearby body of water. A patient fishmonger at Locals’ counter can explain what it is and detail how to prepare it. Or maybe I’ll learn to shuck an oyster or clean a soft-shell crab in one of the market’s demo classes. Whatever the case, the story of the species will start to be told, just in finding out where it’s from and how to eat it. 

“What we really care about is our roots of just getting fish from point A to point B,” Peterson says. “When you come to us to buy your seafood, you’re seeing what’s actually happening on our coast. We won’t have mahi but a couple weeks a year, because that’s when they’re catching mahi off the coast.” 

Zack Gragg portions blueline tilefish at the Locals Seafood market. Photo by Angelica Edwards.

“But we have lots of other fish,” he continues, “and we can tell those stories—introduce people to something like amberjack or tilefish, black drum, red drum—all these species off our coast that come and go in season. That’s what we’ve been doing for over 14 years at farmers markets—telling that story and letting folks know, ‘Hey, this is something good to try off our coast and it’s a great resource.’”

The expansion also allows the business to tell these fish and shellfish stories to more people in farther reaches of the state, making North Carolina seafood more accessible. 

Such infrastructure only becomes more important as the word travels regarding the value of what chefs like Moore and Reusing have long held as a cherished resource. In other words, once you learn the story of a fish—a sheepshead, say—and get a taste for it, you might be willing to pay more for it next time.  

“It’s kind of ironic that in making underutilized fish more expensive, it might actually protect the fisheries in the future,” Reusing says. “When the community starts to see ‘Oh, there’s value in this,’ it becomes something that is worth taking care of.”   

“I’ve always been a big proponent of this idea that if we live by a body of water—which we do—that has a beautiful, bountiful amount of local species, we should be eating them,” Moore says. “Locals was—and still is—a wonderful partner in making sure we push this idea of ‘North Carolina first’ in terms of seafood and co-brand North Carolina as not just barbecue but for seafood.

Comment on this story at food@indyweek.com.

Tulip Snails Are the Southern Delicacy You’ve Never Heard Of

Chef Dean Neff of Seabird in Wilmington is all in on this lesser-known foraging find

by Lindsey Liles on June 3, 2024 | Reprinted from Garden & Gun

Photo by Baxter Miller: A tray of tulip snails and lightning whelks fresh from the marsh

At Seabird, an oyster bar and seafood spot in Wilmington, North Carolina, chef Dean Neff will take whatever his shellfish supplier brings him from the nearby marshes: oysters, of course, along with razor clams, stone crab claws, lighting whelks, ribbed mussels, a seaweed called dead man’s fingers, and most recently, a new-to-him ingredient called tulip snails. “They’re something I can’t believe I’m now learning about,” Neff says of the predatory marine snails. “They are just so fun.”

Neff’s supplier is Ana Shellem, an aptly named, one-woman foraging show, who started finding tulip snails at low tide a few months ago in the brackish marshes of Masonboro Island just five miles from Wilmington. Once the delicacy arrived at Seabird’s door, Neff and his chef de cuisine, Jay Jones, went to work extracting, cleaning, and bathing them in an aromatic broth to keep them from toughening. “We used the same technique of cooking them as we do with lightning whelk, something else Ana brings us,” Neff says. “But the tulip snails are more tender, a little bit sweeter than whelk, much smaller, and easier to get out of their shells.” 

Photo by Baxter Miller: Chef Dean Neff extracts the snails

First, the duo put the snails—whose flavor and texture Neff likens to a cross between razor clam and lobster—in a pasta dish alongside Calabrian chili peppers, fresh herbs, garlic, summer beans, and field peas. They even arranged the beautiful spiral snail shells on the side of the plate. “We wanted a simple approach to really allow people to experience them,” Neff says. “We consistently sold out of that dish because people were so intrigued.” Tulip snails also make an appearance on the restaurant’s seafood tower, or come poached, tossed with a vinaigrette and finished with a touch of ramp aioli. Next, Neff wants to pop them in his take on a classic cioppino, add them to a Lowcountry boil, and use them for a stew or chowder.

As it turns out, tulip snails aren’t all that novel of a menu item, at least locally. “Not long after I first learned about them, my wife and the kids were at the Cape Fear Museum, and she texted me a picture of this display of tulip snails that showed how they have been a food source in this area historically,” Neff says. “I love that we are able to bring them back now, give people an experience that is so unique and so much about a sense of place.” 

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Photo by Baxter Mills: The spaghetti dish featuring tulip snails at Seabird

Much of Seabird’s menu channels that same philosophy. Raw oysters hail from Topsail Sound or Hatteras Island; baked, they are topped with seasonal ramps, cornbread crumbs, and Benton’s bacon. Soft-shell crab and crispy smoked catfish hail from in state, too. And many of Neff’s favorite dishes star ingredients from Shellem, who spends her days wading through the marsh and loves to see how local chefs use the bounty. “I don’t know what we would do without people like Ana bringing in things like these tulip snails,” Neff says. “Without her work, we wouldn’t have this experience, or this connection to an ingredient.” 

St. Roch Raleigh on Esquire’s list of “10 Best Oyster Bars in America Right Now”

by Omar Mamoon on May 23, 2024 | Reprinted from Esquire

Photo by Anna Routh

From classic seafood counters to new spots serving serious martinis, here are our favorite oyster bars—from New York to Los Angeles and beyond.

My rule of thumb is to always order oysters by the dozen and select four different varieties if possible so that I get three of each type. The first one goes down naked and unadorned—I want to taste its sweet, salty liqueur, and I want to savor the ocean from whence it came. The second oyster—same variety—I spritz with just the smallest squeeze of citrus; juice from a fresh yellow lemon is the only acid I need to cut and complement any salinity.

From there, I decide which version I like more before the third one goes down the hatch. Then I move on to the next variety and repeat this process, carefully considering and comparing each oyster’s respective flavor.

I don’t need a mignonette to mask, though a great one is hard to pass up. Consider it toward the end. Horseradish? Pass. Cocktail sauce? Save those for the prawns.

A little dash of hot sauce is a maybe—sometimes I like to change it up a bit with a little heat, but that’s as far as I’ll go.

There are plenty of places across America that aren’t on the water where I down beautiful bivalves to my heart’s content. From the old-school seafood counters and train-station institutions mentioned above to newly opened, regionally inspired bars serving up serious cocktails, here are some of my favorite ones throughout the nation.

St. Roch

Raleigh

James Beard Foundation nominee for Best Chef, Sunny Gerhart grew up in the St. Roch neighborhood of New Orleans before coming to Raleigh. He helped open the famed Poole’s Diner in 2007 alongside his mentor chef, Ashley Christensen, and a few years later, he struck out on his own, opening a seafood-centric restaurant, oyster bar, and ode to his roots: St. Roch Fine Oysters + Bar. Sit at said bar, nab the seats closest to the oyster-shucking station, and watch how the pros do it. The oysters come with fried saltines for snacking on the side; this will make you question why all saltines don’t come golden, brown, and delicious by default.

Read about the rest of Esquire’s favorite oyster bars here

Locals Seafood’s New Fish Market

by Kelsie Barton on March 28, 2024 | Reprinted from Raleigh Magazine

Photo by Owen Scott Jordan, Courtesy of Locals Seafood

Locals Seafood opens a full-service fish market in East Raleigh with a restaurant on the horizon.

It’s ofishal: Locals Seafood has a new home in the City of Oaks. Since closing its popular oyster bar at Transfer Co. Food Hall in 2022, Locals—which supplies restaurants and grocery stores throughout the Triangle with the freshest NC seafood—has been working hard to build out a new HQ off of New Bern Avenue in East Raleigh. Now, that space has received a face-lift (think a brick exterior painted a deep ocean blue and bright white signage) and is ready to welcome the city’s seafood lovers to shop, shuck and socialize.

The heart and “sole” of Locals’ new East Raleigh outpost is a full-service fish market carrying a variety of premium seafood brought in from the coast each week. Although Locals’ team of fishmongers regularly sells seafood at farmers markets across the region—including, most recently, in Asheville—this “inland fish house,” as co-founder Lin Peterson calls it, will display their largest offering of fish that can be cut to order or dressed with herbs and ready to take home to cook. 

It’s a full-circle moment for Locals, which champions buying seafood straight from the source and was born out of a desire to give NC folks who live further inland better access to freshly caught fish. “We make four to five trips each week picking up seafood up and down the coast and bringing it to Raleigh,” says Peterson. “It’s a pretty special thing, but it’s kind of hard to paint that picture because we are our own supply chain. … Now, finally, we have a market attached to that operation so we can tell that story.”

Beyond selling superfresh seafood, the market will allow Locals to expand its retail offerings to include salads, smoked fish dips and other chef-crafted items, plus accoutrements such as seasonings and housemade sauces. And with almost 2 acres of outdoor space at the new property, Locals is destined to become the host with the most when it comes to oyster roasts and other local events. There will even be a lineup of educational classes—everything from how to fillet a fish to oyster shucking 101.

With plenty of room for growth at the new HQ, Peterson confirms a restaurant attached to the market is “in our sights.” (And for those wondering, Locals’ existing resto inside Durham Food Hall is still going strong.) The co-founder points to Brooklyn’s Greenpoint Fish & Lobster Co. as a source of inspo for their long-term vision. But during this initial phase, the focus will simply be setting up Raleigh’s home cooks for success.

“From shuck-at-home oyster kits complete with sauces to stuffed whole fish and marinated shrimp skewers, we’ll have everything you need to prepare amazing seafood at home—and teach you how to do it!” shares Peterson. He adds they will even be dry-aging fish on-site, “allowing home cooks to sear the most perfectly crisp fish skin, just like the pros.”

As spring weather beckons us outdoors and our palates begin to crave a taste of the coast, one thing’s for sure: Thanks to Locals and its seafood prowess, Raleighites are in for one shell of a good time. localsseafood.com

BEHIND THE BUSINESS: Perspectives from a Seafood Insider

Winter 2024 Issue | Reprinted from Coastwatch

Nathan King of Seaview Crab Company, Wilmington

Seaview Crab Company has seven locations, including its Midtown Market at 1515 Marstellar Street in Wilmington. Nathan King co-owns Seaview Crab with Sam and Joe Romano.

What motivated you to work in the seafood industry?

Sam and Joe are I are childhood friends who grew up in the same neighborhood in Virginia Beach. We often teamed up with one another to do odd jobs – mainly yard work, so we had established a strong working relationship with one another before we left for college.

Their earliest exposure to commercial fishing occurred when their father worked with a crabber on Knotts Island, North Carolina.

Joe and Sam graduated from UNC-Wilmington, and while in school, Sam worked for a local seafood wholesaler and saw the strong demand for Atlantic blue crabs in the Wilmington area.

I got an engineering degree from Virginia Tech, but I had no interest in a desk job, so I teamed up again with Sam and Joe in Wilmington, this time to test the market demand for local seafood.

In the beginning, we sold only blue crabs to local retailers and restaurants. After about two years of catering only to wholesale markets, we set up a 10’ x 10’ tent on the side of Carolina Beach Road to sell blue crabs directly to consumers at retailer prices. We learned our business could not be sustained long-term selling just crabs, so we added shrimp and sales increased. Later, we began selling a variety of finfish and shellfish to diversify our retail offerings.

Seaview Crab Company’s owners (left to right): Joe Romano, Sam Romano, and Nathan King.

You’ve been building a seafood business since 2005. Describe a typical day running your operation.

Mainly I keep my eye on the revenue streams, and these tell me what items to add and which ones to eliminate. My goal is to quantify our efforts so we make good decisions.

I allow our managers to oversee the daily activities in the retail markets and the kitchen while I focus on the numbers to learn what is working well in the business, what is not, and what activities need to be modified to improve our business efficiencies.

Do you make a strong effort to sell North Carolina seafood? 

We do because our customers appreciate local seafood. We keep our supply chains close to home to keep money in the community and because we value the personal relationships we have with fishermen. Also, buying seafood locally allows us to buy high quality products.

Unfortunately, we cannot source enough local seafood to satisfy the demand for it, especially in inland markets. Inland communities two or more hours from the coast can be “seafood deserts” and are where strong market opportunities exist for us.

What is your best-selling seafood and why?

When we first opened Seaview Crab Company, shrimp was in high demand in Wilmington because it was a “shrimp town.” Now fish of all varieties are in high demand. Flounder is popular with our retail customers, and blue crabs continue to be a strong seller.

We are exploring convenience seafood products. We offer cooked hard crabs for sale online because we want to offer niche products that are not widely available from other seafood businesses.

We update our customers every Friday through email blasts, Facebook and Instagram to highlight our offerings and to tell a seafood story of the week.

Credit: Seaview Crab Company

What opportunities do you see for your business?

Digital platforms definitely enhance communications with our customers, but we also take orders by phone for those who are not comfortable with technology.

We are exploring the demand for prepared foods like seafood spreads and seafood chowders because we recognize a portion of our customer base values convenience in buying meals and preparing them quickly at home.

What are the challenges?

Training. Seafood has so many peculiarities that it is difficult to include all the important details in one training manual.

We also want to provide growth opportunities to our team because it is important for the team to grow with the company. Our growth is dependent on their attitudes and capabilities.

Another challenge is sourcing enough local seafood to meet our market demand. We produce crabs, clams, and oysters with our own boats and licenses, but the bulk of what we sell is from other fishermen, dockside fish houses, and dealers. Unfortunately, the number of active fishermen in our area is decreasing.

A third issue is meeting the regulatory requirements of local and state health officials because some of our products fall under the purview of both county public health and state agencies. But we are working with health officials to meet their expectations in a way that maintains and enhances our business efficiencies.

A North Carolina farmer once said, “The ticket to success is learning about your customers. You have to work until your product is so good your customers want to tell their friends about it.” Do you agree? 

I do agree, and we use technology to communicate with our current customers and to attract new ones. We have built a directory of our customers from the emails we collected since our days operating roadside stands. We learn from them very quickly what species are in high demand and what conveniences they need that we can offer.

We shy away from billboards or ads in newspapers. Digital platforms offer us immediate feedback that tells us how well our current and potential customers are engaging with our online advertising.

A Seaview holiday special: baked flounder stuffed with cornbread, crabmeat, onions, peppers, and arugula. Credit: Seaview Crab Company.

How do you envision your business operating five years from now?

I’d like to see us enhance our customers’ access to North Carolina seafood, particularly people living distant from our coast. I’d also like to see us doing more with value addition, such as expanding our meals-to-go category or introducing more varieties of smoked seafood.

Cut-to-order fish is another opportunity, but that category demands a great deal of wrist action from workers. We need to learn if we will have the workforce to expand that offering to our customers.

People do not come to Seaview Crab Company just for the seafood but also to consult with our staff. So we want engaging people who can educate customers on what we offer and how to have the best experience cooking and eating our seafood at home.

What one thing would you like to share with people that you believe best distinguishes Seaview Crab Company from other North Carolina seafood retailers?

Seaview is still a young, ambitious company. I believe we excel at developing new sales strategies and products to help our customers access and prepare seafood beyond the traditional ways of buying and cooking and eating seafood.

We are not afraid to lose some money to find the right approaches to getting North Carolina seafood to the people who want it.

MORE

Seaview Crab Company.

Seaview’s Locations.

Seaview Crab Company on the NC Oyster Trail.

The NC Local Food Council’s story on Seaview Crab Company.

Recipes for crabs and other shellfish from Mariner’s Menu.

Coastwatch on Seafood.

NC Oyster Trail

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