The whiff of fish is the first clue that Wrightsville’s Motts Channel
Seafood is an authentic fish house. The wares are fresh, unloaded from
boats that pull right up to the dock out back. Boats like the Orion,
which could have just brought in the grouper or hogfish about to be
iced in the display.
Fishermen are notorious for telling tall tales. But when the crewmem-bers
of the Orion relate their encounters with angry storms and hungry
sharks, and their passion for their work, there is no need to exaggerate.
The Orion is a 32-foot BHM, a Down-East lobster boat, trustworthy
at sea but just rough enough around the edges to convey the classic feel
of a commercial boat suspended in time. It’s owned by Albie Solano,
a member of a small group of commercial spearfishermen in North
Carolina. These intrepid adventurers make their living hunting their
prey face-to-face underwater.
“Spearfishing is risky and really difficult. You need a certain set of
skills that it takes a long time to accumulate,” Solano says.
The fish are hunted as far as 160 feet below the surface, up to 70 miles
offshore, using custom wooden, enclosed-track spearguns that are about
55-60 inches long. There is a line attached to the spear shaft so the diver
can pull in the catch.
FACE TO FACE
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WBM june 2017