^triped Mullet 



VALUABLE FISHERY WITH 

 RICH TRADITION 



By Ann Green • Photos by Scott D . Taylor 



While watching the breakers along 

 Atlantic Beach last fall, Joey Frost noticed a 

 purplish tint to the water. The ocean was packed 

 tight with a school of striped mullet. 



With the "stop net" that is designed to stop 

 migrating schools of mullet in place, the beach 

 seine crew pulled in the striped mullet with a 

 farm tractor. All told, they hauled in more than 

 45,000 pounds of mullet. 



'This was our largest catch in five years," 

 Joey Frost says. "It was exciting to catch that 

 many fish. It took six to seven hours to load the 

 fish on the truck." 



For the Frost family, beach seining is a 

 ritual that has been going on for five generations. 

 Now, Henry Frost, his son, Joey Frost, and 

 grandson, Matthew Frost, work on the beach 

 seine crew each fall. 



"It is our heritage," says Henry Frost. 

 "It was started by my grandfather. It is so much 

 fun scoring mullet." 



In 2002, the Frosts combined their 

 operations with another crew on Bogue Banks, 

 making them the only beach seine crew on the 

 Banks. "It creates a great comradery when you 

 have 25 men doing a job in unison," says Frost. 



Along North Carolina's coast, there are 

 also some small beach seine crews that fish for 

 striped mullet off Cape Lookout. 



Instead of using beach seines, most of the 

 commercial fishing community is using gill nets 

 to catch mullet during the fall. Both are targeting 

 roe mullet — a delicacy in the Far East. 



The meat, which is rich and tender, is used 

 in rice noodle soup. The plump golden yellow 

 roe is preserved and given as a gift in Taiwan 

 during festivals and the New Year. 



"In 1979, gill nets replaced beach seine as 

 the dominant commercial fishery for all mullet," 

 says Rich Wong, N.C Division of Marine 

 Fisheries (DMF) biologist. In 2001 , 94 percent 



of the commercial mullet landings were from 

 gill nets." 



Besides stop and gill nets, recreational 

 fishers use cast nests when fishing for striped 

 mullet. 



Mullet Regulations 



For the crews that use stop nets, there are 

 strict regulations. In the early 1990s, user 

 conflicts arose between pier owners and beach 

 seiners using stop nets, according to Wong. 



As a result, the DMF began regulating stop 

 net fishing for striped mullet. Stop nets may be 

 used only in the Atlantic Ocean on Bogue Banks 

 in Carteret County in certain areas between 

 Beaufort and Bogue inlets. 



Although the primary season for mullet is 

 the fall, some people also fish commercially for 

 nonroe mullet throughout the year. 



Year-round mullet fisheries — coupled 

 with the traditional fall gill net and beach seine 

 fishery for roe mullet — have created a concern 

 for the economically important species. 



In 2002, the commercial fishing 

 community landed about 2.6 million pounds of 

 striped mullet, valued at $1 .2 million, making it 

 the sixth most valuable finfish in the state, 

 according to DMF. From 1972 to 2001 , Carteret 

 County led the state in commercial mullet 

 landings with an average of 43 percent, followed 

 by Dare County with about 1 2 percent. 



However, in 2002, the landings for Dare 

 and Carteret counties were nearly equal. Carteret 

 had 30 percent of the striped mullet landings, 

 followed by Dare with 28 percent. 



In Dare County, about 80 percent of the 

 roe mullet come out of the Albemarle Sound in a 

 four-mile strip between Manns Harbor and 

 Manteo on the Croatan Sound, according to 

 commercial fisher Charles Locke of Wanchese. 



"There is a theory by old-timers that roe 



Continued 



12 AUTUMN 2003 



