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This young shrimper is carrying on Silver Dollar Road's commercial fishing tradition

Nate Ellison comes from a family of commercial fishers struggling to hold onto the coastal community they have called home for generations. Outsiders have tried to block access to the waterfront Ellison and others have used for decades to dock their boats and unload their catches. When one of the family’s shrimp boats mysteriously burned, some residents wondered if land grabbers were to blame.

None of it has stopped Ellison from carrying on the commercial fishing tradition.

At 22, he is one of the youngest fishermen working from the end of Silver Dollar Road, an area facing the loss of its culture in tiny Merrimon, N.C. Ellison, like his relatives, is not willing to stand by and let it go.
“When it's in your blood, it's stuck. You can't get rid of it,” Ellison said aboard the trawler he named after his son, Kayden, and daughter, Kaizlee.

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This story is party of NC Catch’s “Recognizing African American Participation in the North Carolina Seafood Industry” project. North Carolina’s Black seafood business community has partnered with researchers in this historic project conceived by NC Catch to build understanding of the vital role African Americans and people of color play in the state’s seafood industry. Narratives, video and oral histories tell the stories of Black fishers, wholesalers, chefs and others working in seafood. A N.C. Sea Grant 2024 Community Collaborative Research Grant has helped fund the project.

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Ongoing legal battles over family property — a controversy so intense it has been covered by national news outlets and was spotlighted in the 2023 documentary “Silver Dollar Road” — is just one of the challenges Ellison faces as a shrimper. High fuel prices and the cheap imported shrimp undercutting wholesale prices since he started fishing in 2022 fire his tenacity to keep family traditions going. He also supports his community, going so far as to share part of his catch with residents in need whenever he can.

“I find if you give blessings, you receive them.”

Ellison shared his story in an interview with NC Catch’s “Recognizing African American Participation in the North Carolina Seafood Industry” project team. The following excerpts have been edited for length and clarity.

What is it about commercial fishing that you love?

The first time I went with my dad, I was eight. And from that day forward it's like, when it's in your blood, it's stuck. You can't get rid of it. From the time I was little to now. The last day of my elementary school fifth grade, they let us paint ceiling tiles. It may still be in the school right now. I painted a shrimp boat on the ceiling tile. From second, third grade up it is all I've wanted to do.
Every day is different. I can go today and make a load of money and catch a ton of shrimp, and I can go tomorrow and do nothing. It's never the same. You get some adrenaline off of it. And then when you do good, it feels way better. Especially when you haven't been catching much or your boat's tearing up. And then you get it where you want it and you go out there and catch shrimp, it feels great.

How many people your age do you see in commercial fishing?

I can think of two. One older than me and one my age. My buddy, Cooper, I want to say he’s 25. My buddy, Thomas, he's right around my age. But there's only three real, real young ones who do. My cousin, he fishes and stuff like that. But he has a day job.

You said that during high school you thought you took college-level courses to become a diesel mechanic, but you changed career directions.

I don't have the patience to be a mechanic. It's too tedious…I started shrimping with my dad when I was like 8 years old…I always told myself, when I get older, I'm gonna have a boat. And it just so happened that I got my first boat straight out of high school. It sank due to a hurricane. Then I shrimped on a little skiff, it was like a little pontoon skiff, for three more summers. And then I eventually ended up getting this one. This one, I've invested a lot more than expected into it. I don't see the point of letting the boat just sit for me to go work for someone else. And I have a thing about being my own boss. I don't like working for other people. I like to do my own thing…eventually I do want a bigger boat.

You come from a family of commercial fishermen. You’ve named your boat after your children. And, you’re already taking your young son on your shrimp boat.

Yes, (my children’s) names and handprints are all over this boat. My daughter, she's still young, she doesn't really care about (fishing). My son, he likes it. He just turned 4. He wants to drive. All he wants to do is drive and go in the back. I'll just give him a little pile (of shrimp) to cull through on the floor. I don't bother him. I'll let him do it. I mean, if he wants to (be a fisherman), I'm not gonna stop him. But I'm not going to encourage it either.

You and your family have faced obstacles in your careers as commercial fishers. For many young fishers, the first obstacle is just getting a license to fish. Did you have trouble getting a commercial fishing license?

I didn't only because my Uncle Melvin, my Uncle Billy, my granddad James and my dad, Roger, they've done it (commercial fishing) their whole lives. And at the time, when I got this boat, my dad wasn't on the water actively. So, he assigned me his license. I feel like him letting me use his, it put my foot in a lot easier than trying to do the eligibility to get my own license. So, I'm still assigned to my dad's right now, (but) I have the (application) packet filled out.

Your father was a commercial fisherman from Merrimon?

He was. He was born and raised here. He started out in crab pots. He had like 750 crab pots that him and my granddad worked together. From when my dad was my age right on until the mid-2000s he ended up buying a shrimp boat and started shrimping a little more, he shrimped on a skiff before that. And then he got a bigger boat. Then with all this land stuff going on, it forced him to have to sell the boat because (the people who claim the land) didn't want nobody down here.

Editor’s note: Ellison’s extended family has been involved in a dispute over who owns 65 acres along Silver Dollar Road in Merrimon, including the waterfront area where Ellison and generations of his family have tied up their fishing boats. The original owner, Ellison’s great-great grandfather, Mitchell Reels, left no will, letting the land pass to his heirs. But a nephew of Reels’ also claimed ownership. He used an obscure law called the “Torrens Act” to claim ownership and ultimately sold the land to developers who denied the family access to the property. Ellison’s uncle, Melvin Reels, and another relative, Licurtis Davis, disagreed with the action and refused to stay off the land. As a result, they spent eight years in jail, even though they had broken no law. Ellison was around age 10 when his uncles were jailed. The family’s story was told in a 2019 ProPublica article and in the 2023 documentary “Silver Dollar Road.”

We didn't have access to and from the docks. So, it forced him into selling his boat just because he had nowhere to keep it at. After that, I just kind of said, I don't really care about the land stuff. If that's what I want to do, I'm gonna do it. Because I know by law, as long as I don't go through their land, if I come down the beach (to the dock), there's no restrictions on that.

Have you ever been approached by anybody questioning that?

Oh yeah. Well, my dad had actually got arrested a few times for trespassing. As you can tell, there's no pole in front of this boat. Well, my dad had a pole out there to tie the bow to at one point in time and (someone) cut the pole off underwater. So my dad got locked up for it because they said he was trespassing on the land. After that, it was like a long ordeal and it kind of trickled down throughout everybody in the family. Anybody that came down on this end of the road got messed with. They nitpick for anything they could get. Here lately, it's kind of mellowed out a little bit. It's still an ongoing thing. But it's not like an everyday battle just to get to and from your boat. As long as we don’t mess with them, they don’t really mess with us.

How long was your father jailed?

His charges were just like, little trespassing charges. He basically put up more money to beat the charges. And he didn't really do much jail time. Go in, get processed, come out, go in and get processed come out on a repeat, but it was so repetitive that he was always getting messed with. That was the bad part, it wasn't really the jail time. He just was in and out and paying lawyers to defend his name.

And your uncle Melvin lost his trawler. What was the story with that?

Supposedly, it was bombed...And it sank right over there at his dock. And while he was in jail, some crew came in and cleaned it up. Basically, just took what was left and put it on a barge and left.

Is Melvin not fishing anymore?

He might go with me or my dad or something here and there. But he's not like, full time at it anymore. He’s getting older now.

Are you the person who kind of stood up and said ‘I can use this if I want to?’ Or did your dad take that stand first. Because you have a presence on the waterfront now.

You can't let nobody stop you from getting what's yours. Some aren’t scared of going to jail but if they know it’s a risk of getting locked up, they'd rather just kind of back off, sell their boats or do whatever they need to do.

What was this waterfront like before the land got sold?

This was full of boats. I mean full, whole rows like Harkers Island harbor. It was nothing but shrimp boats, but nobody knew about it. Nobody thinks to ride all the way down here. My cousin Casey had one, my dad, (Uncle) Melvin had one. (Uncle) Billy had one.Some boys from Down East and others. About 10 boats used to sit right here.

Uncle Melvin, he had a little box truck. And it just had an icemaker in it. So, everybody could get ice. And he had a big fuel tank…So anybody here who needed fuel, they’d go right to his tank and get fuel. We didn't have a packing station. I wanna say it was like a retail fish house…he had the basis of it going. And then he had a few Chinese guys that would come down here and buy all his shrimp (wholesale). The Sanitary (restaurant in Morehead City) were buying shrimp straight off the boat. They were selling to them as well. Down here, the way it was set up, we didn't really have to deal with a fish house.

If there was a big, big supply of shrimp caught on the boat, then yeah, (my Dad) probably (went) to the fish house. But for the most part, they didn't have to because they had smaller dealers that were just coming here buying everything and leaving with it and then just come back with the money. And it was more profitable because everything was right here. You can get off your boat and walk home. You didn't have to run back and forth (to a fish house). You could get it done and then you're home. It was a lot easier.

What do you do now?

I sell to Kenny Pittman’s fish house. And I have my dealer’s license. So, if a family friend or someone I know wants a few pounds, I'll sell a few pounds here and there but it's too aggravating to try to (market it myself – you have to) catch shrimp, process shrimp, (and) sell shrimp. It's more profitable (to market shrimp yourself), but you got to spend more to make more. I'd have to have my own way of having ice. I'd have to have my own way to get fuel easily. I'd have to transport them, you know, and seafood will rust a vehicle out. So you put wear and tear on your cars. It just takes too much.

The only way it's really beneficial is if you can get somewhere and set up a stand. Where people see it there regularly, they stop in, they get what they want and they go. But if you're riding from house to house, store to store, trying to sell shrimp…I've tried it. I can't do it. It's way too much. And then by the time you get done selling shrimp all day, you go shrimping that morning, you sell shrimp all day, you go shrimping that night, then you get very little sleep and you're right back at it again 3 o'clock in the morning the next day. You get four or five hours of sleep a day, it's too much on the body.

How important is this place for you? To be able to dock right here at the end of Silver Dollar Road on Adams Creek?

It's a big factor. It may not seem like it… just because it's home. I live right up the road. Adams Creek is like a shrimp sanctuary…It might not be super, super good every year but there's at some point within that summer, you're gonna get a good run of shrimp. And with me docking right here, I can leave my dock and be working in 10 minutes max. Get my nets down (and) my bags tied. So being right here plays a big part. Most boats come from Beaufort or Oriental, Harkers Island, Marshallberg, they got a good ride.When the shrimp hit here and you got to run for three, four hours, you lost money. I'm right here.

What is going to happen to this property?

Nobody knows. It's still an ongoing battle.

If those who claim the land end up building something, would they be able to kick you off the dock and waterfront here?

They can stop us from coming through that gate. But they cannot stop you from being on the water. Nobody can control (public trust waters). If those outside people claim they own the land, why did they need to lock Melvin and Lacurtis up for eight years? And tell him ‘Hey, sign this piece of paper, and we'll let you go.’ If I own something, and you're on my land. I'm not going to have you jailed. I'm gonna throw you off.

You and your father built the dock you’re using, or rebuilt it?

We had to straighten the poles up. Some of them were broke off or something. We pumped that one up and replaced it. We just repaired it enough to where I can get my boat in there. And then maybe a month or so ago, three weeks ago, my dad bought his boat. So, now we have to finish — there's still some existing poles down there. But we straighten them up and extend it to where his boat can go farther over because now this ain't really the place you want to be with your outriggers up. But it's the only way he could get in here.

In 2023 and into 2024, the market has been flooded with cheap, imported shrimp, meaning U.S. fishermen are getting rock-bottom prices. How are you coping?

Day to day. It's the only way to put it. Day to day. If you don't have a good week, you're not making it. I've had weeks this year where I've went in the negative. I think twice this summer I've went in the negative. It's not really profitable.

I run this by myself. But it's not profitable when fuel is $4 a gallon and 16/20 shrimp (16-20 shrimp per pound), you get $1.50, $1.60 for them. You got to catch three or four pounds of shrimp to pay for one gallon of diesel fuel. You burn six, seven gallons of diesel fuel each hour. If you work a 10-hour day, say just say six gallons, 10-hour day, that's 60 gallons. You times that by $4 a gallon that's $240 for just your fuel expenses. You'd have to catch 240 pounds of shrimp just to be able to pay for your fuel for one day. For one day! And that's not including oil. That's not including ice. That's not including if you rip a net and have to go buy a new net. If the motor breaks down. Anything. Your electronics go down; you go buy new electronics. That doesn't account for any of that.

So, on the minimum each day, with the way things are now, you have to at least turn, I say, about $350 to $400 (a day) to operate this boat. There's some guys that have to spend way, way more. There's some guys that can spend less but to operate this, I need to make at least $300, $400 a day.

Do you have a side gig that helps pay the bills?

I kind of do a little bit of everything — I paint cars, tint windows, cut grass, detail cars, power wash houses and driveways. I know a few other local guys, you know, they'll call me when they get their boats put on the railway, ‘Hey, man, can you come paint my boat?’ or something. So, I have other ways of making money. But it's just not as fun as being on a boat making money.

I'd really do this all day, every day. I haven't quit yet. If it wasn't for wanting to do it, I wouldn't do it.

The property dispute facing your family has been intense. Have you encountered any other barriers or challenges that you attribute to being an African American commercial fisherman?

I would say, certain places you feel like you're out of place. Certain people may treat you different. There's a lot of white fishermen right here that have taught me a lot of things. The whole Down East community has been there for me pretty well since I've gotten into it, if there was something that my dad and my uncle and them didn't teach me…I've worked with a few of them on their boats, and they'll show me some tricks and stuff. There's a few around here that you could tell are borderline, but, for the most part, the boys around here treat me pretty good. I do feel that when you're working around them, they kind of do look at me different. But I also feel that part of that is I'm really one of the youngest ones doing it. I don't try to bring race into it. But I do feel like it plays a factor, just depends on where you're at. It depends on the place and the people.

Where have you felt like you were kind of out of place or uncomfortable?

You know, when we're all in here working, you hear the boys chitter chatter and on the radio, and then, I just, there's some guys that have bigger boats, that I feel like, try to push me around. And I don't know if it's because their boat's bigger and they know they have more power than me, or if it's just, ‘I don't really like him.’ You know? It's hard to verify the cause. But I have seen some things where I feel like I'm out of place.

Do you have particular mentors, people that have helped you in the commercial fishing industry?

Definitely, my dad and my uncles, because they're the ones that got me into it, and they're pretty good at it. That was a big factor. And then a lot, I mean, a lot of the guys from Down East showed me a lot of things.

My family, when they were shrimping, were full-time shrimpers. But they didn't have to go nowhere because they stayed right here in Adams Creek. It ain’t like now. Every time I go, I need to fill my box. I need at least 25 boxes a week, 2,500 pounds a week, for me to come ahead a little bit. Now, with those guys Down East, I've worked with them. They've showed me how to work Core Sound, how to work Pamlico, how to work out in the ocean in Beaufort. So, they've led me in the right direction for sure.

What is the biblical verse number on your boat?

Luke 5:4. It was basically, Jesus said to Simon, ‘Put your nets down into the water for a catch.’ And Simon was like, ‘We've been fishing all night, and we haven't caught nothing.’ Jesus told Simon to put his nets down, and they got a blessing. They caught a load. I’ve always liked that verse, so I had to put it up there to keep me motivated.

If I go out here and I don't catch nothing, it's kind of like, man, I gotta keep going, I can't stop. I'll get my blessing one day. My time ain't God's time. So, when he wants me to have it, he'll give it to me. If I've done something where I don't deserve it, I'm not going to get it. But I feel that hard work pays off. You'll get it eventually.

Just like last year. In here we caught a crazy amount of shrimp. One day I was coming in – I caught (just) four pounds of shrimp in an hour drag. Called my dad and said, ‘Look. I'm tying this boat up. I can't do it. I'm going to have to go find a side job or something. This ain't it.’ And when I was pulling my outriggers up to go (to the fish house), I seen a rainbow over my boat. That's weird. My dad didn't think much of it. But I took a picture of it.

When I got home that night, I lay down, and I was like, ‘I better keep going. I better go again, Sunday, I better go Sunday,’ cause something…I just had a weird feeling about it. Well, that Sunday (evening) when I come out here, I caught way more than what I expected. We done that for like a week and a half, two weeks straight. Every day. The fish houses had to put us on limits. They couldn't process them (shrimp). They couldn't keep enough ice to pack them. We couldn't keep enough ice on the boat.

Ever since then I put that Bible verse all over his boat.

You showed us a video of you working those huge catches. Who is that helping you on the boat?

My dad. He goes with me when he has a chance. And it just so happened that that whole week he was free to go with me. I couldn't have done that by myself.

When your uncle Melvin went to jail, you were just a kid. So, he must be proud to see your success as a commercial fisherman.

Yeah, I was about 10 years old (when Melvin was jailed).

Oh, he was happy to see me fishing. I think that it made him happy that someone in the family kept it going. My dad and Uncle Billy, they tried as long as they could. But when you keep getting false charges and harassed, you can't do it so much. Melvin seeing somebody getting back into it brought him a sense of confidence. He is crazy about this piece of land. He will not give up on it at all. Uncle Melvin helped the whole family off the water. So, I feel like it makes him happy seeing shrimping still going.