O’Neal’s Sea Harvest Ships 15,000 Pounds a Day Across U.S. and Canada

1 articles · Updated · The Virginian-Pilot · Jul 4

Fresh catch unloaded at O’Neal’s Sea Harvest in Wanchese can reach buyers from Canada to Louisiana by the next afternoon, with fish typically processed, packed and shipped the same day.
Up to 70 fishermen sell to the family-run operation depending on the season, and on busy days it buys as much as 15,000 pounds of fish; last fall it also purchased nearly 1 million pounds of blue crabs.
Four 1,200-pound pallets were headed to Philadelphia on one late-March morning, while crabs were bound for New York, illustrating the broad East Coast wholesale network behind the Wanchese fish house.
State and federal catch limits have tightened supply for staples such as flounder, while the soft-shell crab season has shortened to two or three weeks and may be affected by changing salinity.
Those constraints have raised the stakes in a highly competitive market, though stronger prices for some species—tuna has climbed to as much as $10 a pound—help sustain Outer Banks fishing businesses.