Joanne Throne of Avon was the moving force behind the formation of the Hatteras Island non-profit group, which calls itself Coastal Harvesters.
She envisioned bringing fresh, locally produced food to residents and visitors. Farmers would not only sell their fresh produce but local watermen would sell their fresh catches.
This falls in line with a national trend away from processed and imported fresh products and toward buying fresh, local, sustainable foods, a movement known by various names, including ?slow food? ? as opposed to fast food.
When it came to produce, Throne had a challenge ? enticing farmers from the mainland to travel all the way to Hatteras Island in the summer to sell at the market. She?s working on that one with some success.
However, the bigger roadblock became Dare County?s Board of Health regulations that prohibit fishermen from selling their catch from vehicles or at open-air markets.
In the winter of 2010, Coastal Harvesters went to the county health board to request a change in the regulations.
The board refused, saying that sales of seafood at markets would present a public health hazard.
Coastal Harvesters was disappointed, but the public barely raised an eyebrow.
After all, improperly handled seafood at these markets could kill people or make them very sick. Right?
Well, yes, but, as it turns out, fishermen can and do sell at farmers? markets in other states and in other counties in North Carolina ? and with few if any problems.
That?s what David Green, a professor at North Carolina State University and director of the N.C. State Seafood Laboratory, told the Dare County Board of Commissioners earlier this month.
You can click on the link at the end of this blog to read Green?s presentation, which I think is very persuasive.
At the end of presentation, Green said, ?Public health concerns for the sale of seafood at local farmers? markets are relatively few and solutions to allow for direct sale by commercial fishermen are not difficult.?
He said that the N.C. State Seafood Laboratory is willing to help if Dare County moves forward with a proposal to allow the seafood sale at markets.
The commissioners made just a few comments after Green?s remark, with Commissioner Mike Johnson, chairman of the county?s Working Watermen?s Commission, saying that he want to see the county do ?whatever it takes? to get the issue off dead center.
There are three farmers? markets in Dare County. They are in Manteo and Southern Shores and the Coastal Harvesters? market, which happens each Tuesday from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at Hatteras Realty in Avon.
The Manteo and Southern Shores markets are in municipalities, and the Avon Market is in an unincorporated area. The Coastal Harvesters group has been most active in continuing to push for seafood sales at markets.
However, it is not the Dare County Board of Commissioners that will get the issue moving. It?s the county?s Board of Health.
Although the commissioners appoint health board members and provide local funding and can certainly discuss seafood sales at markets, the issue is ultimately up to the Board of Health to regulate public health issues. The regulations are, of course, based on state regulations.
Dare County regulations that ban seafood sales at farmers? market were passed in 1999 and have not been changed, although, Green noted, there has been a change in the scientific information available.
Also, Dare appears to be the only county in the state that bans outright the seafood sales at markets, creating an ironic situation in which county commercial fishermen can go to another county to sell their local catch, but can?t sell it at home.
New Hanover County, for example, allows seafood sales from vehicles under certain conditions and limitations, including the regulation and permitting of sellers, locations where they can sell, and such issues as proper icing of the seafood and sanitary measures.
When the 1999 regulation was passed in Dare County, the health board was obviously concerned about watermen and dealers who set up on the side of the highway and sell seafood at bargain rates from their vehicles.
Anne Thomas, director of the Dare County Health Department, said her staff members have researched the issue of public safety in seafood sales at markets in the past. And, she said, in light of the continuing discussion of the issue, the staff is going back to look at it again.
Brant Murray, who is the chairman of the Dare County Board of Health, said he
has talked with Thomas and that the issue would likely be on the agenda for discussion at the next board meeting, which is on Sept. 27.
He indicated that he does not outright oppose the sales, but that there will be many more decisions that the board will have to make if it would be open to ending the ban.
Even if the board reverses itself and allows the seafood sales at certain markets, the issue won?t end there.
?A lot of people want to make this a black-and-white issue,? said Allen Burrus of Hatteras village, who is vice-chairman of the Board of Commissioners and that board?s representative on the health board.
Public health issues aside, a discussion with two Hatteras commercial fishermen well illustrates the opposing views of seafood sales at markets on the island.
Michael Peele of Hatteras village is a long-time commercial fisherman.
?It?s a sore subject,? said Peele, who totally favors seafood sales at market. ?I can?t understand why Dare County is against it.?
The county, he and other note, has spent time and money on its Working Watermens? Commission to save working waterfronts and the county?s commercial fishing heritage and on the Outer Banks Catch, a program that promotes the sale of local seafood in markets and restaurants.
He thinks commercial fishermen, already struggling under a ton of government regulation, need every opportunity they can get to make a little extra money.
?They?re not going to get rich, but if they can make an extra $20 or $30, it would help,? he said.
The visiting public, he said, is also interested in local seafood and would benefit from the opportunity to meet the county?s working watermen and talk to them about their lives as fishermen and the island heritage they represent. It would be good public relations.
Keith Gray of Buxton is also a commercial fisherman. He also owns Diamond Shoals restaurant, sushi bar, and seafood market in Buxton.
He ? and other owners of seafood markets on the island ? would prefer not to have more competition.
He says that if he thought the market sales could be set up in a way to benefit only local commercial families, he would be in favor.
?That would be cool,? he said, ?but the world just doesn?t work like that.?
Instead, he fears business from tourists would go to non-island watermen or dealers, who would have a captive audience and an unfair advantage over markets that have to invest in getting their businesses up to health department standards and operate under strict regulations.
It is true that almost all businesses on the island are small businesses whose owners have a relatively short tourist season to make it work. Their profit margins aren?t out of sight, and every little bit counts to them as much as it does to the struggling commercial fishermen.
Commissioner Allen Burrus, who owns Burrus Red & White Supermarket in Hatteras village, which sells produce and some seafood, says people assume he is opposed to selling seafood at markets, but that is not necessarily true.
?I?m just trying to be fair to everyone,? he says. He also doesn?t want to see watermen from elsewhere descending on the county.
Also, he isn?t sure how the regulations can be set up and enforced to be fair.
The Southern Shores and Manteo markets, he said, are in municipalities that could oversee seafood sales and help the county enforce regulations, but who, he asks, would enforce regulations in the unincorporated areas of the county, such as Hatteras?
?And once the door is open,? he added, ?it?s hard to close it.?
Susan West is the wife of a commercial fisherman and an activist for preserving the economic, historical, and cultural heritage of commercial fishermen and working waterfronts on Hatteras Island.
She helped Coastal Harvesters frame their appeal to the health board last year, and she thinks that the seafood sales at market could work, and work to the benefit of local fishing families.
She says the county could require that the seller must be the fisherman who landed the fish or a person directly involved in the family business in another capacity and perhaps a member of Dare?s Outer Banks Catch organization.
?The rules could even prohibit the sale of fish purchased from other sources,? she said. ?Many farmers’ markets have vendor policies that prohibit wholesalers from participating in the markets. In the case of seafood, there is actually a paper trail detailing the source of seafood — the Division of Marine Fisheries trip tickets.?
Her letter to the health board asked its members to change regulations to allow licensed commercial fishermen at farmer?s markets operated by non-profit organizations or by municipal, county, or state government.
Commissioner Mike Johnson agrees. He said the Working Watermens? Commission has focused on opening sales to licensed, local commercial fishermen and their families.
?We?re not talking about someone selling seafood out of a car under an umbrella,? he said.
It was a simple idea that became complicated, he said.
Neither he nor West believes that a large number of commercial watermen would sell at the market, and Johnson and others note that the market is open only one day a week for four hours for a limited number of weeks.
?I really don?t think that what little amount we are talking about will threaten businesses,? he said.
Throne is still passionate about moving forward and does not think it will hurt island businesses.
?It is the Food Lions, the Walmarts of the world that kill the local ?ma and pa? businesses,? she said. ?It is the chain restaurants that sell cheap ?What is that thing under the bun?? sort of food.
?Markets will bring customers to those who sell our local fresh fish and seafood, the stores that carry local produce,? she thinks and adds that the Hatteras Island Farmers? Market does not sell at wholesale prices.
?It does not undercut the retailers. Anyone who has shopped at HIFM realizes early on that it is not about saving money. People shop there because they meet the very person who is the producer. They become educated and understand the preciousness of our food supply — how fishermen love their fish, how farmers love the land, and how artisans love their work.?
Coastal Harvesters, she said, will work with the county to ensure all health codes are enforced and with working watermen to ensure that only commercial fishing families are represented.
Even so, if you have read this far, you can see that this is not such a simple problem and the solution wouldn?t be easy either.
What is clearly needed here is further discussion about the safety of selling seafood at farmers? markets and a dialogue among watermen, business owners, and county officials to overcome fear, worry, and mistrust about unfair competition. That is a valid fear for our local businesses.
Whether the idea of watermen selling their catch at a local farmers? market works out or not, we owe it to ourselves to have a community dialogue about future of our local small businesses ? how they can survive in the tourist-based economy and still support the commercial fishing community.
If we are to continue to have local seafood to sell in markets and restaurants, we need to be part of the effort to ensure the survival of our watermen.
I hope visitors and residents will take the time to comment on this issue and cast a ballot in The Island Free Press poll.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
CLICK HERE to read David Green?s remarks to Dare County Commissioners and see links to other information about selling seafood at markets.
Dare County Board of Health chairman Brant Murray says he is interested in hearing from the public on this issue. His e-mail is brantmurray@aol.com.
You can also find contact information for the Board of Commissioners on the Dare County website, www.darenc.com.
