Outer Banks Seafood Festival

What We Do

The Outer Banks Seafood Festival provides the opportunity to learn more about our local fishing industry and heritage. Come and watch live demonstrations, meet the fisher folk and see the boats involved in bringing fresh seafood to your table. Celebrate our rich, seafood heritage and discover what it has done for our local community.

View all of the scheduled talks and demos in the Education tent in the Fishing Village on our Event Schedule page.

Event Schedule

Education

NC Coastal Federation

Learn about their mission and goals on cleaning coastal waterways, effective coastal management, and removing marin debris and how you can help.

US Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxillary

Learn about boater safety and current ways we help vessels in distress.

NC Division of Marine Fisheries

Learn about fisheries management and how scientists determine the health of a population.

Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station

Learn about how we used to help vessels in distress and the dangerous swims that the surfmen took to save lives.

North Carolina Waterman United

Learn about the fishermen and how we can protect their livelihood.

Network for Endangered Sea Turtles - NEST

Learn about the natural history of sea turtles and how this group helps nesting sea turtles here in the OBX.

North Carolina Sea Grant

Learn about local seafood that you can find in Outer Banks fish markets and what to look for to ensure your seafood is great!

NC Oyster Trail

Learn about the importance of oysters and where oysters can be found in North Carolina.

The Boats

There will be a variety of boats on display during the Festival. We encourage you to walk around and get a close up view of some of the hardworking vessels that bring fresh North Carolina Seafood to your table.

Crab Boat

Crab boats are specially designed for crabbing and the unique challenges associated with working and living at sea.

Crab Pot Building

Learn the parts of a crab pot and how to build them with a local waterman

Crab Shake Competition

Dory Boat

A Dory boat is a flat-bottomed rowboat with high, flaring sides and two pointed (or nearly pointed) ends.

Giant, Inflatable Crab

Gillnet Stand

Gillnets hang like vertical walls in the water and capture fish by the gills as they try to swim through the mesh of the net.

Life-Size Crab Pot

Try your luck at being a crab, see if you can get the bait and escape a crab pot, or become part of the watermen's harvest.

Marine Fisheries Boat

Net Casting Competition

Pound Net Set

A system of nets staked upright in the water and a rectangular enclosure or pound, from which escape is impossible.

Shad Boat

Shad boats are the official state boats of North Carolina, first developed around Roanoke Island after the Civil War.

Shrimp Trawl

Shrimp boats, sometimes called shrimping boats or shrimpers, are boats rigged especially to catch shrimp as part of the shrimp fishery.

US Coast Guard Buoy Tender

US Coast Guard Jet Boat