The Fish Man: How a 14-Year Old Shrimper Grew Up to be a Worldwide Charterboat Captain

Reposted from nccatch.org 2024 post by Liz Biro, interview by B. Garrity-Blake

By the time John Mallette started dropping a line off Ocean City Pier in the late ’70s, segregation had been illegal for 15 years. But a clear division remained between Ocean City Beach and the bordering “white” beaches on either side of the town. That didn’t stop white commercial fishermen from selling bait shrimp to African American anglers on the pier, and it didn’t discourage Mallette from making friends with those shrimpers.

“And that’s kind of how it started,” Mallette said of his commercial fishing and charter boat captain career.

Mallette was just 7 years old when he started fishing at Ocean City Beach in Onslow County. A Black doctor and white attorney founded the community in the late 1940s as a place where African Americans could enjoy the shore without being harassed. Ocean City Beach was also the only place on that stretch of coast where Black people could purchase waterfront property. Mallette’s parents were among the first families who bought a home there.

The white fishermen Mallette met lived in the nearby fishing village of Sneads Ferry, and Mallette soon landed a job at what is now a historic family fish house there. After years of working in commercial fishing and as a charter boat captain, Mallette today co-owns Southern Breeze Seafood retail and wholesale market in Jacksonville, N.C. But he does more than sell seafood. 

Mallette educates people across the state about the vast array of N.C. seafood available to eat. He sells seafood to top chefs, stages cooking demonstrations at the N.C. Seafood Festival and was a force in revitalizing the Sneads Ferry Shrimp Festival.

Mallette shared his story in an interview with NC Catch’s “Recognizing African American Participation in the North Carolina Seafood Industry” project team. Click HERE to read the rest of the story.