imported product. We also are trying to increase 

 awareness of the abundance and nutritional value 

 of shrimp in North Carolina." 



r 



TRUCK RIDE TO NEW YORK 



Five days a week, Wanchese Fish 

 Company's trucks deliver 

 seafood — caught from their 

 boats and by other North Carolina 

 companies — to locations across 

 / the East Coast 



On Sundays through Thursdays, 

 the 1 8-wheelers leave from Wanchese 

 Fish Company's office in a concrete 

 building on the waterfront in the tiny 

 community of Wanchese. The trucks go to 

 Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New 

 York markets. 



On a recent day, one man loaded 

 crabmeat and hard crabs onto one truck and fish 

 onto another with a forklift. The seafood is stored 

 a refrigerated section of the trailer. 



"We freight everybody else's seafood," says 

 uiser Midgett of Wanchese Fish Company. 

 \fe send at least five trucks a week to New York, 

 metimes we send as many as 1 to 1 5. We are 

 t packing as many fish as we used to because of 

 )re government regulations." 



After the trucks are loaded, the drivers arrive. 

 5t, Voliva, a burly man dressed in a T-shirt and 

 ins, loads his quilt, cooler and pillow into the 

 ck of the cab — an efficiency apartment with 

 rtains separating the driving section from bunks, 

 y closets, a cubby hole wired for a TV and 

 frigerator. The front has a CB radio and a state- 

 f-the art map tracking system. 



A few minutes later, Woolard, a tall man 

 with glasses, puts his belongings in the back. 

 Woolard is one of eight Wanchese Fish drivers 

 who transport seafood back and forth on the 

 East Coast. Two pairs are husband and wife 

 teams. 



On the drive to New York, Voliva 

 leaves the parking lot at the seafood 

 company around 2 p.m. First, he heads 

 1 down N.C. 345 past businesses and a 

 long stretch of marsh. Then he turns and 



TOP TO BOTTOM: Eric Voliva checks pallets 

 of oysters and jimmy 

 crabs before unload- 

 ing at the Fulton 

 Fish Market. On a 

 busy night, the drivers 

 have to wait in line 

 before unloading. 

 Many of the market's 

 wholesale dealers have 

 been family-owned and 

 operated for generations. 

 Workers deliver orders 

 throughout the night and 

 early morning. 



10 SPRING 2004 



