The Daniels family, including the late Malcolm Daniels, 

 is synonymous with fishing on the Outer Banks. 



The early morning is a busy time 

 at Wanchese Fish Co. 



"I do whatever they want me to do," 

 says Joey Jr. "I repair boats on the water, 

 drive the tractor trailer and work on the dock." 



He is the fourth generation of his 

 family to earn a living from the water. 



On the Outer Banks, the Daniels family 

 has become synonymous with fishing. 



"The Daniels family has been 

 assisting the seafood industry in moving 

 products for 65 years," says Wayne 

 Wescott, North Carolina Sea Grant 

 fisheries specialist. 



Now, eight members of the Daniels 

 family help run the fish company that has 

 evolved into a major seafood processor and 

 packer on the East Coast. Their trawlers 

 work the waters as far away as Argentina. 



With such a large and diverse 

 operation — from a trawl supply store to 

 trucking company — there is a different 

 job for everyone. 



"All of the important jobs are headed 

 by family members," says Mikey Daniels, 

 who oversees the boat maintenance. "No 

 one looks after our business as well. 

 Hopefully, when one of us steps down, there 

 will be another Daniels to take his place." 



The company is headed by Joey 

 Daniels. A robust middle-aged man with 



an entrepreneurial spirit, he is past chair 

 and current board member of the N.C. 

 Fisheries Association. 



While trudging through a puddle of 

 water in the loading area, Daniels points to 

 a box of frozen scallops that will be 

 processed into scallop medallions at the 

 Hampton, Va., plant. 



In the 1990s, the fish company 

 launched the scallop medallion on the East 

 Coast as a way to market its surplus of 

 small sea scallops. 



The technology for the value-added 

 product was developed by the North 

 Carolina State University Food Science 

 Department. With support from a North 

 Carolina Fishery Resource Grant and 

 North Carolina Sea Grant, the lab offered a 

 cold-binding technology that created 

 uniformly sized medallions from scallops 

 naturally only a quarter- to half-inch wide. 



Scallop medallions now are sold 

 throughout the U.S. and Europe. 



"The scallop medallions are selling 

 good," says Joey Daniels, who now serves 

 on the North Carolina Sea Grant Outreach 

 Advisory Board. "We are making 60,000 

 pounds of scallop medallions a week." 



Beginnings 



Wanchese Fish Co. started in 1936 

 when Joey's father, Malcolm Daniels, 

 inherited the fish company from his father- 

 in-law, Capt. Will Etheridge. 



"My grandfather took small boats 

 fishing in the sound," says Joey Daniels, 

 who serves on the Joint Legislative 

 Commission on Seafood & Aquaculture. 



All of Malcolm and Maude Daniels' 

 1 1 sons and four daughters got an early 

 start in the fish business. 



"When the children came along and 

 reached a certain age, Malcolm put them to 

 work in the fish business," says family 

 matriarch Maude Daniels while sitting in 

 her living room filled with family photos. 

 "He said it was their heritage, and he 

 wanted them to work to protect it." 



In those days, everything was done by 

 hand, says Mikey, a former Dare County 

 commissioner. "The older you got, the 

 bigger the job. At 1 6, 1 drove my first 

 tractor and trailer and was told to go to 

 Hampton." 



When a boat came in, the children 

 would leave school to help pack the fish. 

 "On Sundays, Dad would not let us pack 

 fish until after midnight," says Mikey. "We 



20 HIGH SEASON 2001 



