December 28,  2009


Several years ago, leaders of the North Carolina Watermen United (NCWU) set out to document the economic value of for-hire charter boats operating in the state.

The report revealed what Capt. Ernal Foster of Hatteras and the rest of the watermen suspected, that for-hire fishing along the Carolina coast has a giant economic impact for those counties.

NCWU Executive Secretary Melba Milak shared some the results of the year-long study with the Dare County Tourism Board during its meeting on Dec. 16.

During the past six months, some tourism board members have made it apparent that they'd like to see the Outer Banks promoted as a prime fishing destination for tuna, dolphin, and billfish.

In the presentation Milak provided some hard numbers that support the idea that fishing brings people to the area and, in general, has a positive economic impact.

The NCWU first secured a $70,000 North Carolina Sea Grant Resource Grant and then hit the docks with surveys in hand during 2007-2008, she said. A total of 1,300 surveys were taken.

Milak conducted dockside surveys in and around Dare County.

"I'd been coming down here to fish on vacation for 25 years," she said. "A friend of mine said, 'They're going to be doing surveys.'"

Milak, who lives in Hatteras now, said she jumped all over it.

"I want to keep this going forever," she said. "It was a paid position, but it had to be someone who loved fishing."

With a handful of University of North Carolina system professors writing up, testing, and analyzing the surveys, the document carries a lot of weight. Dr. Chris Dumas, a professor of economics at UNC-Wilmington, headed up the project.

"The numbers are from survey data that we collected over a full year, from summer 2007 to summer 2008," Dumas said.

The Sea Grant liaison in this area was Sara Mirabilio who works in the Manteo office.

And the survey results indicate that 156,232 people paid to go charter fishing and another 3,446 went on head boats for a total of 187,677 paying fishermen in Dare County alone.

The overall total number of those who paid to go fishing on a boat for-hire in one of the 15 coastal counties that year was 430,938.

That confirmed what many people suspected.

"'Yes, we come here to fish,'" Milak said the message from the anglers was.

The anglers visiting Dare spent $32.2 million dollars, which was more than half of the state's overall total of $65.4 million.

Conservatively, these fishermen and women also bought an estimated $734,044 in T-shirts, hats, sandwiches, and other sundries offered for sale on the for-hire vessels. But that doesn't include anglers' spouses who stayed back on land and went shopping in Dare stores while the others fished, Milak pointed out.

"My wife is out shopping today," Milak said fishermen told her.

The boat crews also accepted $2.8 million in tips from the passengers; the state total was $5.75 million.

The data collected indicates that that the economic impact from for-hire fishing in the coastal counties was $667 million.

The for-hire fishing industry created 10,252 jobs that paid a total of $261 million in wages and salaries. In addition, $49 million in sales and excise taxes were raised for the state.
The formula uses a multiplier, and tourism board member Mike Johnson said he thought the study was right on the mark.

"I read every page of that study," he said. "The multipliers are in there, but they are very conservative."

The $667 million total impact also includes things such as lodging at hotels, motels, and campgrounds. It also includes money spent on food, souvenirs, and fuel while the anglers are visiting.

In the Northern Region, which includes Dare, Hyde and counties surrounding the Albemarle Sound, another $292 million was spent by other members of the visiting parties who didn't go fishing.

The NCWU is an advocacy group that represents commercial fishermen, charter boat and head boat operators, as well as related businesses, such as seafood retailers and boat builders. The group was formed in 2005 when the saltwater fishing license program was begun.

Milak said the watermen were instrumental in getting the state to agree to offer blanket licenses for all piers, head boats, and charter boats so people fishing won't have to buy a license on top of paying to fish.

As for the large economic impact, outgoing tourism board Chairman Renee Cahoon said she wasn't surprised.

"This really does point out something we've known," she said.

Cahoon asked Milak to tell the watermen group to feel free to send in photos of fishing for use on the Visitors Bureau Web site and Facebook page, which has more than 42,000 "fans."


The last time the bureau posted fishing pictures on Facebook, there were 200 comments posted to the site about the images, reported Aaron Tuell, bureau public relations director.


(Reprinted with permission from the Outer Banks Sentinel.  For more Outer Banks news, check the Web site at http://obsentinel.womacknewspapers.com.)

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