COLINGTON, N.C. — A chilly Wednesday night at Endurance Seafood brought together about 20 longtime fishermen in the Outer Banks, many whose ties to the crabbing industry go back generations.
"Family's been in the business 100 years or better. I went to school for architecture, didn't like being inside, come back and started crabbing," said Dana Beasley, who has been crabbing since 1992 from Currituck to Hatteras.
The meeting was held specifically to talk about the latest proposals surrounding regulation of the blue crab industry. The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries says that for years blue crabs have been overfished.
"We are very concerned about the overall crab stock that we have here in North Carolina. I would prefer rather doing something small now, and hopefully it will have lasting effects and start building that recruitment up," said Robert Corbett, a fisheries biologist and co-lead on blue crabs for the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.
The recommendations being brought to the commission include:
• Effective Jan. 1, 2026, prohibit crab trawling statewide year-round.
• North of the Highway 58 Bridge, 30-bushel hard crab trip limit from September through December.
• South of the Highway 58 Bridge, 15-bushel hard crab trip limit from September through December.
The Outer Banks and northeastern North Carolina would fall into the 30-bushel hard crab limit per trip. Tara Foreman, a manager with Captain Neill's Seafood, says the 30-bushel limit would be detrimental to their operations.
"September through December is when the bulk of the crabs come in. In North Carolina, you have two of the largest domestic picking houses, and so if you limit September to October to a 30 bushel limit, then my production would drop by at least 35%. For the other one, they would probably drop more than 35% but the impact would be with your large fishermen that about two years, and you would see them out of business," said Foreman.
Corbett says they don't make these recommendations lightly.
"We don't take any management lightly. We understand that this is affecting the livelihoods of commercial fishermen. What we are trying to do is be as transparent as possible with the data that we have," said Corbett.
Outer Banks fishermen tell me that no matter what the species is, with each proposed regulation, they feel they can't catch a break.
"In the last three or four years, commercial fishing, as far as crabbing goes, has been some of the better years we've had. It's one of our oldest professions in the state, and they're in jeopardy of getting rid of it, is what they're doing," said Beasley.
The Dare County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution earlier this month against proposed blue crab harvest restrictions, saying in it, "a proposed 5-month closure of the fishery and/or a 10-bushel limit would have insurmountable economic impact across the fishery, affecting our local communities."
The Marine Fisheries Commission will meet to discuss the proposals in Wrightsville Beach Nov. 19-20. The discussion and vote are planned for the morning of Nov. 20.
Foreman shared with me that the North Carolina Blue Crab Association has been created in response to the new proposals, feeling the Division of Marine Fisheries does not have the legal right to go through with new restrictions.
"We feel like the Marine Fisheries does not have the legal right to do what they're doing right now under adaptive management. They have not met the qualifications or the framework for adaptive management at this time. The framework specifically says they have to have an updated peer review stock assessment, which their stock assessment failed, and the stock assessment that comes behind that is outdated," said Foreman.
