November 25, 2009

Susan West is a veteran journalist whose work appears in local and national publications, as well as the co-author of “Fish House Opera,” a book about the decline of the commercial fishing industry.

And throughout her career as a journalist, as well as her marriage to local commercial fisherman, Rob West, West has learned a thing or two about the fishing industry.

A self-described “policy geek,” West has written about the regulatory changes in commercial and recreational fishing and how those changes have impacted the fishing communities and working watermen for many years.

And what she’s seen hasn’t always been pretty.

That’s part of the reason she has started Hatteras Connection—a loosely organized group of concerned individuals aiming to drum up community support for the island’s working watermen.

West sees Hatteras Connection as a community-driven organization that helps support and promote the island’s fishing industries and ensures that the island watermen can adjust and adapt to regulatory changes.

“The broad goal would be to enhance benefits that commercial and charter fishermen bring to the island, and at the same time, forge a structure that ensures that we always have them on the island,” she said.

West says that the idea for Hatteras Connection began building in her head over the years, as she attended fisheries meetings.

She noticed that more and more regulations were being proposed and that the situation of commercial and recreational fishermen was not improving.

“A level of frustration had just crept up in my mind,” she said.

In February and March, she met with some folks from Sea Grant to discuss the idea of some “complementary activities” that might help the struggling industry.

That discussion led to a meeting at the Fessenden Center in July with West, a few Dare County residents, including Dare County Commissioner Mike Johnson and Hatteras village charter captain Ernie Foster, and representatives from North Carolina State University, East Carolina University, and Sea Grant.

At the meeting they compiled a list of problems and talked about potential solutions.

“Basically, what it boiled down to,” she said, “was that, if we are going to have fishing industries on Hatteras Island, it’s going to take a lot of community support.”

Since that meeting in July, the group has “been testing the waters to see if this is something that’s important to Hatteras Island.”

West set up a booth at the annual Day at the Docks celebration in September in an effort to distribute information about and to gauge visitor interest in the island’s fishing industry.

What she left with was a clear impression of how important the island’s identity as a fishing community is to the people who visit the island.

That revelation, while perhaps not altogether surprising, was a huge boost to West and the others.

For now, Hatteras Connection remains a loosely structured group of people—a project, West is calling it—while she and the others determine if the community’s level of interest is high enough to warrant formally organizing the initiative.

“I’d like to see that happen,” she says. “There are a lot of benefits from being a permanent organization.”

West believes Hatteras Connection can capitalize on a couple of national trends—the resurging popularity of small, independently-owned businesses and an increasing interest in locally-sourced, sustainably harvested food.

Using those trends as marketing tools, Hatteras Connection could promote the island’s watermen without sacrificing the integrity or authenticity of the industry.

West says that Hatteras Connection would also work closely with the Dare County initiative, the Commission for Working Watermen.

Some of the ideas for future Hatteras Connection projects are to develop a local seafood branding program, establish lower cost vessel insurance programs for commercial and charter-boat vessels, develop value-added seafood products, establish a scholarship fund for marine science students, repeal property taxes on commercial and charter vessels, and to address obstacles hindering entry of young people into fishing careers.

Other ideas include attracting visitors to the island with cultural and culinary tour packages, creating a “sea camp” for kids, and developing “The Other Chowder” campaign—holding a chowder cook-off with North Carolina ingredients and locally sourced clams and sending recipes to state and national food media.

Hatteras Connection’s first project—a seafood dinner to benefit the Hatteras Island Food Pantry and Hatteras Island Meals—will take place Tuesday, Dec. 8, at the Hatteras Civic Center, from 5 until 8 p.m.

West and several others have arranged for local fishermen to donate a wide variety of fresh seafood that will be prepared by local chefs and community members.

There will be chowder, baked and grilled fish, roasted potatoes, cole slaw, corn bread, iced tea, and dessert.

Tickets will be $10 and will be sold in advance. Guests are asked to bring one non-perishable food item.  All proceeds will be donated to the food pantry and Hatteras Island Meals.

West says she hopes the dinner will remind everyone how our fishermen can enhance our community and will, in turn, incite the community to be more active in supporting our fishermen.

But if that doesn’t happen, the event certainly won’t have been in vain.

“The fact of the matter is, even if Hatteras Connection goes no further, it did this wonderful thing.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Anyone interested in becoming involved with Hatteras Connection or in donating supplies or volunteering their services at the fundraiser should contact Susan West at ridgeroad@earthlink.net or at 995-4131.
For more information on fishing issues locally, nationally, and globally, check out West’s blog at www.ahabsjournal.typepad.com.