The North Carolina coast is synonymous with its seafood and beaches. With a population of over 1.2 million, and a 3,000 mile long coastline, North Carolina’s eastern counties have deep rooted traditions that have shaped an entire culture’s cuisine (Coastal Facts). “North Carolinians have always turned to the water to set their tables but not, so it happens, to fill their pocketbooks,” over time, we see how a population has used fishing, and the water for leisure, sustenance, and business (Taylor, 1992, p. 1). The history of fishing for both subsistence and commerce is succinctly detailed below: 

In colonial times, fishing served largely subsistence rather than commercial purposes. During the late colonial and antebellum periods, however, planters in the Edentin area developed huge fisheries for spawning shad and herring in the Chowan River and Albemarle Sound. Only during the postbellum period - with improved transportation and the availability of ice - were markets created for fresh fish and shellfish, allowing independent watermen to emerge. By the early 1900s, those developments had laid the base for today’s modern, diversified, coast-wide fishing industry (Taylor, 1992, p. 1)

Between commercial fishing, seafood preparation, markets, retailers, and restaurants, as of 2021, North Carolina's commercial seafood industry had an economic impact of $300 million (North Carolina’s Wild-Caught). In 2022 alone, over 35 million pounds of seafood was caught (2022 Commercial Landings). However, the types of seafood prioritized and caught has shifted throughout the years. In 1890, shad, oysters, and bluefish accounted for more than 99% of fishery output. By 1940, this had shifted to mainly shrimp and crab (Stick and Carter, 2006). This can be seen in the photo from From Roots Com Branches: Lifestyles and Recipes from the Outer Banks, a community cookbook by Brenda Daniels Harrison. The theme of crab and shrimp is notable in this time period, even in the Wilson community cookbook collection, in which we see an abundance of recipes containing these ingredients. Today, the most valuable species harvested are blue crab, shrimp, and flounder (Commercial Fishing).

For many, fishing is for daily sustenance and fun - it's a culture. Vicki Prescott, author of Sweet Tea Please, recalls that the beach “was our haven,” where they would go swimming and crabbing every weekend (2007, p. 5). Ryan Stancil of Bit and Grain claims:

If you’ve lived here for very long, you’ve probably been fishing yourself; if you haven’t, your brother, sister, cousin, friend, or neighbor definitely has - and does.  For many people, fishing is a momentary escape from everyday life. For some folks, fishing is the way of everyday life - for a few, the only way they’ve ever known - that puts food on their families’ tables. And for all of these folks and many more, eating fresh, local seafood is a harbinger of sun-soaked, laid-back days at the coast.

“Food is central to the family in coastal North Carolina, and is associated with togetherness and good times'' (Davis and Hart, 1986, xv). This sentiment is echoed by many in which they claim that “nothing can trigger a memory quite like food” (Prescott, 2007, Dedication).

A lesser known history is that of fish and fishing traditions in early African American cuisine and culture in the Carolina coast. Though not well documented, it is known that West Africans since pre colonial times, have used fishing for subsistence and industry. As early as 1678, Europeans gave accounts of West Africans smoking and sun-drying fish (Miller, 2013, p. 71). Thus, when the slave trade ensued, West Africans were brought to America with their fishing traditions and cuisine. Overall, they held positive attitudes towards fish, especially catfish, which is native to both West Africa and North Carolina. This was a sentiment not echoed by Europeans or Americans at the time; “only social outsiders ate fish regularly, and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, that meant African Americans, Native Americans and poor whites” (Miller, 2013, p. 72). Even by the 1950’s fish was not a staple in the white American diet, but was widely used by Black Americans, especially in community events such as church fish frys (Moose, 2018, p. 19). The difference in attitude towards catfish can be seen in the community cookbooks I have researched in Wilson Library. I was largely unable to find recipes involving this particular fish. 

Additionally, there is the story of the tiny, silver, menhaden fish. Menhaden, caught for processing and rendering into fatty oil, was North Carolina’s number one commercial fishery by volume for decades, from 1950 to 2004. This was a booming industry for North Carolina fisheries up until the last fishery closed in 2005. A unique and distinct culture grew around this little fish. Generations of African Americans found work in these fisheries and became known as the menhaden “chanteymen” (Hatcher, 2023, p. 205). The crewman sang work songs, or “chanteys,” to pass the time and endure the hard work. While their story is often lost to history, with the exception of a few local publications, their work made North Carolina’s industry a success.

References 

Davis, N., & Hart, K. (1986). Coastal Carolina cooking. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Edwards, E. (2021, February). Making A Splash on the Coast and Across the State. North Carolina’ s Wild-Caught Commercial Seafood Industry; NC State University. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LTIqrqWcWpAHw_0U7LDlQTrM8pOZbVTw/view  

Fishing Boats, Hatteras, N.C., Dare County, North Carolina Postcard Collection (P052), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Hatcher, T. (2023). Time and tide : The vanishing culture of the north carolina coast. Blair.

(n.d.). 2022 Commercial Landings. North Carolina Environmental Quality. https://www.deq.nc.gov/about/divisions/marine-fisheries/science-and-statistics/fisheries-statistics/commercial-landings-year/2022-commercial-landings

Miller, A. (2013). Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time. The University of North Carolina Press. https://library.biblioboard.com/content/0493cfe9-31ed-4c3f-83b2-aab08acd86c0 

Moose, D., & Leonard, J. (2018). Carolina catch: Cooking North Carolina fish and shellfish from mountains to coast.

(n.d.). Coastal Facts. North Carolina Beach, Inlet, and Waterway Association. Retrieved April 1, 2024, from https://www.ncbiwa.org/coastal-facts/ 

(n.d.). North Carolina Commercial Fishing. Commercial Fishing. https://www.commercial-fishing.org/regional/usa/north-carolina-commercial-fishing/#:~:text=North%20Carolina%20is%20known%20for,and%20other%20bottom%20dwelling%20fish.

Prescott, V. (2007). Sweet tea please: Recipes and recollections from coastal North Carolina. New York: iUniverse, Inc.

Stancil, R. (n.d.). The Coastal Carolina Anthology: Catch. Bit and Grain North Carolina. http://www.bitandgrain.com/stories/north-carolina-seafood#:~:text=Built%20on%20a%20maritime%20tradition,communities%20historically%2C%20culturally%20and%20industrially. 

Stick, D., & Carter, K. (2006). Commercial Fishing. NCpedia. https://www.ncpedia.org/fishing-commercial#:~:text=Trout%20was%20the%20most%20profitable,n.d.%20(1935%2D1940). 

Taylor, M. T. (1992). Seiners and Tongers: North Carolina Fisheries in the Old and New South. The North Carolina Historical Review, 69(1), 1–36. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23520847