Menhaden Fisheries in Beaufort and Morehead City, North Carolina

Our waterways are filled with history. History of its people, culture, occupations, weather, shoaling, terrestrial animals, marine animals, and fish. Frequently, they get all intertwined. E.g. whale hunting, people, occupations, etc. was a huge activity from Shackleford to Hatteras. Or Shacklefords’ wild banker horses, descendants from the Spanish Mustangs, and its challenging weather and waterways. The activity of going to see these wild horses and discovering great shelling is H2O Captain Eco-Tour Private Boat Excursions' most popular tour!

Another example is the menhaden fish, pictured at right, whose industry was centered in Beaufort, Morehead City, and Southport, NC. On their waterfronts, menhaden boats lined the wharves and factories processed tens of millions of tons of fish annually into massive quantities for fertilizer and oil. When the wind was right, the aroma of the fish covered those towns like a blanket.

The menhaden industry flourished for more than a century. The state’s last menhaden factory, Beaufort Fisheries, closed its doors in 2005. Capt. David Willis was one of the longest-serving menhaden boat captains in the United States.  Capt. Willis first took command of a menhaden boat when he was only 24. He grew up in Lennoxville, a neighborhood in Beaufort, NC that many of the old menhaden boat captains used to call home.  He dropped out of school in the 10th grade to go fishing. It was a family tradition. His father had been captain of a menhaden boat. His grandfather had been captain of a menhaden boat. Or as Jimmy Buffet would sing, a “Son of a Son of a Sailor.”

At the end of every day of fishing, the fishermen soaked their nets, called seines, in salt. “Pickling the nets,” it was called. The salt “killed off the slime.” A seine drying rack can still be seen in Lennoxville on Taylor’s Creek. Should your H2O Captain Eco-Tour Private Boat Excursions take you through Beaufort, just ask Captain Mark to point this out to you!

Captain Willis’s name lives on as his relatives run the Cap’n Willis Seafood Market located in the towns of Emerald Isle and Salter Path, both on Bogue Banks. On all H2O Captain excursions, you will parallel the Banks for at least a few miles.

Some excerpts above are from an article entitled, “Menhaden Fishing Days” from August 5, 2021, by historian David Cecelski.

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