THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 26, 1994 TAG: 9406260103
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MARGARET TALEV, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940626 LENGTH: WANCHESE
As curious children looked on, the 13-year-old whipped the crab around, its shell banging against the sides of the narrow wooden lane.
{REST} ``You're killing him!'' said Dallas Daniels, 8.
``No I'm not,'' Ryan said. ``I'm getting him ready.''
Crab races, a flounder toss and a more reverential blessing of the commercial fishing fleet helped draw hundreds of locals and vacationers to the Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park for its 12th annual festival Saturday afternoon.
Vendors selling everything from umbrella hats and temporary tattoos to funnel cakes and furniture lined the docks behind the fish houses of this waterfront town on Roanoke Island.
``The thrust of the whole event is to bring focus upon the plight of the commercial fishermen and the problems they face,'' said Gene O'Bleness, executive director of the Dare County Tourist Bureau.
``It is a look at the commercial fishing industry. At one time it was the lifeblood of Dare County. It, of course, has been supplanted by the tourism industry. We think people need to look back . . . in order to look forward.''
Looking at aerial photographs of Oregon Inlet from 1981 to 1993, festival visitors could see the movement of sand and water that threatens the industry in this fishing village.
Col. Robert Sperberg of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers explained the current means of coping with the shoaling problem - dredging a channel - and talked about long-term proposals being studied, such as the Oregon Inlet Jetty project.
Tom Jarrett, chief of the Corps' Wilmington district coastal engineering branch, said the state's Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park is ``really dependent on the stabilization of the Oregon Inlet for its economic success.''
At a seafood booth, Helen Pfaff of Colington Island was sampling a piece of batter-fried hammerhead shark cooked by Cliff Lynch of the N.C. Department of Agriculture.
``Is that what this is?'' Pfaff asked. ``I didn't know what it was, but I love it. I'd rather eat fish than steak any day.''
Lynch prepared fried shark and catfish - two types of fish that are underutilized as commercial catches - to show fish-eaters and fishermen that these less-popular fish taste as good as the fish that have a bigger market and are overutilized, such as trout and croaker.
Mike Daniels of Wanchese Fish Co. said, ``For every pound of this you catch, you relieve the pressure on the other.''
William Kott of Kitty Hawk sat under the main tent listening to bluegrass music. Delayed by traffic, he had missed the blessing of the fleet, which consists of a prayer and ceremony for the safety and fortune of those who make their living on the water.
The blessing opens the annual event.
It was at the blessing about five years ago that Kott was moved by the beauty of ``Amazing Grace,'' led by local ministers and sung by the crowd.
He went home and taught himself the words, and when a friend of his was dying of cancer, Kott and his wife visited him at the hospital and at home, comforting him with the hymn's sound and message.
The next year, when ``Amazing Grace'' was omitted from the blessing, Kott told one of the ministers about his dying friend. At the following summer's seafood festival, the minister told the crowd Kott's story.
Kott was so proud to have become ``part of the mystique of the Outer Banks, part of the Wanchese festival'' that each year he tries to arrive in time for the blessing.
For local craftsmen, the festival has financial meaning as well as emotional significance.
Hubby Bliven, owner of Roanoke Heritage on Roanoke Island, was selling framed pictures of ducks and lighthouses from a temporary stand set up across from the harbor.
He said that. while he would like to make some money, there were other reasons he had come to the festival for 11 years.
``If I don't sell too much I still got a good meal, I got to see some friends I haven't seen in a while and I got to get some fresh air, get out of my shop,'' Bliven said. ``In other words - I got a day off.'' by CNB