Resiliency to Tropical Cyclones in Fishery-Dependent Communities of North Carolina

Amelia E. Woodruff is a candidate of the Master of Coastal and Ocean Policy program at UNC Wilmington of the spring graduating class of 2021. She graduated from UNCW in the fall of 2018 with a B.S. in Marine Biology and Environmental Science with concentrations in conservation. Growing up visiting North Carolina Beaches, Amelia has fostered a love for the coast that grew further when she moved to Wilmington for university and began pursuing her SCUBA Instructor certification. Her interests lie in the science and policy of resiliency to natural disasters and climate change, wetland conservation and restoration, as well as fisheries management.

The Lucky Amy sits surrounded by less fortunate vessels following hurricane Katrina. Source: cbsnews

The coastal region of North Carolina experiences their fair share of damaging hurricanes that cost families, businesses, and ultimately taxpayers billions of dollars. The fishing community is no exception to these expenses, experiencing losses in infrastructure, equipment, and revenue when these storms pass. Exacerbating these concerns, climate change is increasing the frequency of high intensity hurricanes (IPCC A.3.6). 

Tropical cyclones bring extreme winds, storm surge, and flooding that wreaks havoc on coastal communities. Common losses come from physical damage on personal property, docks, marinas, and other infrastructure. Revenue impacts result from reduced catch sizes that result from impaired water quality and displaced populations. It is critical that fishing and coastal communities institute greater mitigative measures to reduce the costs of a cyclone impact.

Fishing is important to the economy and heritage of coastal NC communities, employing an average of 7,573 workers between 2010 and 2019 (NCDMF). Many of these folks are legacy fishers, with some native families carrying on the tradition for more than 200 years (NC Coastal Resources Law). Vital to the NC economy, fishing generated $1.4 billion in income and $3.2 billion in sales in 2019 (NCDMF). 

Benefit-cost ratios of hazards as they relate to different mitigation measures. Source: NIBS (MMC)

When tropical cyclones hit, impaired water quality, debris distribution, and damage to equipment/infrastructure impose damages on fisheries. Consequently, fishing communities of coastal NC are in need of greater resilience to storms. To start, improvements in fishery disaster response by the Secretary of Commerce, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and NC Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) are essential to bolstering more rapid response to cyclone related fishery disasters. Physical mitigative measures such as increasing reinforcement of infrastructure and the restoration of vital coastal ecosystems are key to creating greater resiliency in the community and fishing industry. Research found that increased use of mitigation measures, leads to reduced costs from future tropical cyclone activity, therefore greater resiliency. The table above displays benefit-cost ratios of the factors of building code requirements, utilities/transportation, and federally funded mitigation projects as they relate to disasters.

The left is a satellite image of from North Topsail Beach to Cape Lookout National Seashore. The right map combines visible and infrared data to reveal the amount of colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) Source: NASA

When disaster strikes, federal and state relief programs are deployed for fishery disasters declared by the governor and approved by the president. This aid is meant to provide greater opportunity for communities to rebuild and recover, ideally with greater resiliency. Federal funds are meant to be supplementary to state aid, which tends to be supplied at a more emergent rate. The scale of available assistance is dependent upon the scale of costs imposed by the cyclone and its impacts. Relief funding is authorized federally by the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) and the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act (IFA).

North Carolina has had two federally declared fishery disasters, Hurricane Florence in 2018 and the 1999 Hurricanes of Dennis, Floyd, and Irene, which imposed extensive costs on fishing communities. Florence landed as a slow-moving Category 1, causing record rainfall events, severe flooding, and damaging winds (Bianchi et al, 2019). Estimates of vessel and facility damages were $16.8 million, while $9.2 million of revenue was lost. Additionally, 2,933 North Carolinians lost their livelihoods (NOAA Fisheries). The active hurricane season of 1999 was initially estimated to have a cost of over $19 million dollars: with white shrimp, blue crab, and oysters representing the greatest sources of lost revenue (Dalton, 1999). Following this determination, the NC General Assembly appropriated $7.7 million in funding to DMF to distribute to the fishing industry (Cheuvront, 2005). While these assistance funds are effective and make up for some losses, shortfalls exist in their coverage. In some cases, fisherfolk have even left the industry citing these losses as part of the reasoning for fishery exit.

While fishing has changed over the centuries in NC it continues to be an important economic driver for the coast. Source: NC Historical Review

As a vital part of North Carolina’s economy, commercial fisheries are heavily impacted by cyclone activity and experience extensive damages in the face of these storms. While federal and state aid is available to provide relief in the wake of loss, these funds are never fully capable of recovering the total losses that these storms impose on commercial fishing communities. 

It is recommended that greater funding be allocated to the recovery of commercial fisheries following disasters contingent upon the use of resilient infrastructure, mitigative measures, and best management practices be prioritized. Furthermore, wetlands and estuaries should be protected, preserved, and restored to repair the natural resiliency provided by these coastal environments in the face of cyclones.