THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 3, 1996 TAG: 9602030333
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: OREGON INLET LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
Capt. Walter Tate had been there before.
Sixteen years ago in this Outer Banks inlet, his fishing trawler ``Lois Joyce'' ran aground, smashed on the shallow shoals and sank.
Four years ago, the second ``Lois Joyce'' sank off New Jersey, leaving Tate and his four crew members stranded in a life raft for two terrible nights.
On Friday, as he was heading home after a week at sea with 20,000 pounds of flounder on board, Tate's 90-foot trawler ``Theresa Marie'' got stuck on a sandbar in Oregon Inlet - within eyesight of his former boat's skeleton, which still sticks out of the ocean.
Tate and two other commercial fishermen were stranded on their steel-hulled vessel about 60 feet east of the narrow channel for almost five hours.
Finally, as the tide began rising, a 47-foot Coast Guard boat freed the ``Theresa Marie'' about 4 p.m.
Although one of the Theresa Marie's engine clutches was damaged when the boat dragged bottom, Tate managed to bring his trawler into its Wanchese port under its own power. No one was hurt, and by nightfall, one of the biggest commercial boats based on the Outer Banks was back in its own berth.
``He sounded real good on the radio,'' Fisherman's Seafood spokesman John Whaley said of Tate as the captain cruised safely through the inlet shortly before sunset. ``Everybody's fine out there for now.
``But this is just the start of it,'' said Whaley, whose Wanchese fish house had contracted to buy Tate's catch. ``More boats will be coming in here from Virginia next week. Then, they'll all have to cross that same sandbar. You'll probably soon see a lot more of this.''
Fisherman's Seafood operates packing houses in Norfolk and Wanchese. For the past month, Tate had been docking the ``Theresa Marie'' in Norfolk and unloading his fish there.
On Monday, however, Virginia began limiting commercial fishing catches to 5,000 pounds of flounder per trip. To legally land his entire load, Tate had to travel to North Carolina on Friday. Virginia officials plan to completely close their flounder harvest next week, which might bring more northern boats to unload at the Outer Banks.
``As bad as Oregon Inlet is now, you just have to feel your way through it,'' Whaley said. ``He went over that bar on one side, backed up, and hit it on the other side. There's just no safe way through there.''
Navigation is difficult even for 62-year-old watermen like Tate who have traveled the watery route almost all of their lives. For out-of-state captains who might not traverse the channel often, the inlet is even more treacherous. Some watermen say the channel markers also are out of place.
```That captain didn't want to come through Oregon Inlet,'' commercial fishing spokesman James Fletcher said Friday from Wanchese. ``He was forced to by the way the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission drew up the regulations. This accident - and the danger those watermen were in - was totally unnecessary.''
The only outlet to sea in 140 miles between Cape Henry in Virginia Beach and Hatteras Inlet north of Ocracoke Island, Oregon Inlet is the primary passage for commercial and recreational fishing boats based along the northern Outer Banks. In recent years, the channel has shoaled so much that deep-draw vessels have not been able to get through. Since 1960, at least 25 lives and an equal number of boats have been lost at Oregon Inlet - leaving watermen to dub it ``the most dangerous inlet on the East Coast.''
For more than 20 years, fishermen have been trying to convince Congress to build two long rock walls along the sides of Oregon Inlet to keep sand from building up in the channel. Jetties would cost almost $100 million, experts say. Watermen think the long-term savings would be worth such expense. But environmentalists say such structures could cause greater erosion along southern stretches of beach. So the government keeps dredging the inlet in a losing battle against tides and time.
Federal guidelines say the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is supposed to keep the channel clear to an average depth of 14 feet. On Friday, Coast Guard crews near the stranded trawler measured the Atlantic at 10 feet deep. The Theresa Marie draws at least 11 feet and when loaded displaces 195 tons. ILLUSTRATION: DREW C. WILSON
The Virginian-Pilot
The 90-foot ``Theresa Marie,'' right, was stranded on a sandbar in
the Oregon Inlet on Friday. After the tide rose in the afternoon, a
47-foot Coast Guard boat, left, freed the trawler.
by CNB