NC For-Hire Capt. Association

03/24/2026

Tomorrow night 7 pm join us live on Facebook through the Ollie Raja Charters personal profile as we speak on the big news of the Carolina Long Bay Wind Farm Project we fought diligently against. President Capt John Dosher and Board Member Capt Cane Faircloth take the gloves off as we celebrate the Win. How a local group of Captains and citizens took on a multi billion dollar company and trillion dollar industry and won.

02/19/2026

Feb. 18, 2026

“Lines of Communication” meetings rescheduled

MOREHEAD CITY – The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has rescheduled the Lines of Communication meetings in North Carolina that were postponed due to inclement weather in early February.

Lines of Communication is a new council initiative to build relationships with fisheries stakeholders and provide an opportunity for mutual sharing of information. The meetings allow attendees to provide their perspectives to local council members, council staff and other fishery participants. The meetings will be held in-person along the South Atlantic coast. Rescheduled North Carolina Lines meeting are follows:

Bolivia | March 23 | 6-8 p.m.
Brunswick County
Sandifer Administration Building
30 Government Center Drive NE
Bolivia, NC 28422

Morehead City | March 24 | 6-8 p.m.
NC Division of Marine Fisheries
Central District Office 5285
Highway 70 West
Morehead City, NC 28557

Hatteras | March 25 | 6-8 p.m.
Hatteras Civic Center
57688 NC- Hatteras Highway
Hatteras, NC 27943

Manteo | March 26 | 6-8 p.m.
Virginia S. Tillett Community Center
950 Marshall C Collins Dr.
Manteo, NC 27954

RSVP here.

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is one of eight regional fishery management councils in the United States that manages fisheries in federal waters. The South Atlantic Council is responsible for the conservation and management of fishery resources in federal waters ranging from 3 to 200 miles off the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and east Florida. It manages species such as Dolphin, Wahoo, mackerels, snapper and grouper. The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries encourages those interested in these federally managed species to attend one of the Lines of Communication meetings.

For more information, contact Christina Curtis at [email protected] or 843-302-8437.

01/09/2026

Several years ago a concerned group of bi partisan Captains and Recreational anglers started raising awareness about offshore wind farms that were proposed to be built off the NC coast. After lots of research and meetings our Captains Association had voted to oppose and fight Big Wind. Our reasoning and platform came to a lot of the same conclusions as the Trump Administration has today. Those sentiments are echoed in the below article. Thank you to all those who rose up to the occasion. This topic will never go away so we are prepared and ready for any future actions.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-offshore-wind-energy-climate-lawsuits-6b10dc13839cef525731ec0b86bc998f?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=share&fbclid=IwY2xjawPN_OxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFnVWlTdFVWZE5GaVRSZTVIc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHvHpGOwl33LN-f_Qnk8V1CL0s2xTbQC8A2jjEfvKeKRAtaFr9xBG74Ay-FU-_aem_KosnHGT6QYYEf_N130s09Q

Offshore wind developers and states are suing the Trump administration over its order to suspend work on five large-scale projects under construction off the East Coast for at least 90 days.

11/05/2025

Upcoming Charter For Hire Meetings with DMF this month. Topic of discussion by marine fisheries is Mandatory Harvest Reporting.

New Hanover County
Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 6 p.m.
Cape Fear Community College
Room 252
502 N. Front St.
Wilmington, NC 28401

10/16/2025

Great Job Jon Matthews as he tells the story of how Sh*****ng in NC almost came to an end.

Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

09/28/2025

Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the mass shooting in our Hometown at the Southport Waterfront. Thank you to the USCG station Oak Island who apprehended the shooter. Senior Chief Adkinson and his crew put their lives on the line every hour of the day whether it's a situation like this or rescuing mariners in peril on their darkest days.

08/15/2025

And just like that David struck Goliath with a devastating blow and the mighty Giant fell to the ground. The Captains Association has squared up and went toe to toe with the trillion dollar offshore wind industry over the past several years. A true tale of David VS Goliath. We were the first to sound the alarm to NC citizens after researching proposed offshore wind farms and what it meant to North Carolinians and future generations. This was no easy battle as we faced off against lobbyist and the marketing machine created by big wind. They had the Biden Administration and the federal govt in their pocket. Big wind also partnered with Social media outlets early in the fight and our viewpoints and sites were shadow banned. Big wind launched campaigns in our school systems and commonly practiced indoctrination of our children. This was a well planned and well funded campaign as they learned from their mistakes from other parts of the world in the past 20 years. Our governor backed big wind and they stood side by side using our state government and his office to support the agenda. Liaisons were placed in our communities to spread fake propaganda. For now Duke energy is out of offshore wind but total energies still holds their lease and may move fwd although more difficult with out duke and NC Utilities commission joining in. This is a huge win for the environment and the people of North Carolina and anyone who loves to visit our state. Thank you to everyone who joined us in this fight as it took a village. We'd like to recognized the below people who fought viciously and stood tall against the giant "Big Wind"

NC For Hire Capt Association President John Dosher
Capt Association Engineer DR Nick
Bruns County Comissioner Marty Cooke
Constance Gee-Green Oceans and our many friends in the NE still waging the battle.
Capt Association Capt Ryan Williams
NC House Reps Charlie Miller and Frank Iler
US President Donald Trump
All 300+ members of the North Carolina For Hire Captains Association.

The below article by the Lock Foundation lays it out accordingly.

Offshore wind is not cost-effective. Because of these findings, Duke Energy will not be pursuing offshore wind energy generation off the coast of North Carolina

06/24/2025

The Captains Association does not support House Bill 442 Flounder, Red Snapper, Inland Shrimp trawl Ban. In it's original form written to open up Flounder and Red Snapper we felt it was a great idea. The modification to Ban Inland Shrimp trawling introduced in Committee and Pushed though by Senate Leadership was disappointing to the vast majority of our members. We are a diverse group of Captains, Rec, and commercial fisherman. There are many viewpoints on this issue from within our group and that's what makes us special. The 1 thing we all 100% agree on is if North Carolina wants better fishing we as a state need to tackle water quality and water pollution.

09/30/2024

Hurricane Helene has absolutely devastated the North Carolina Mountains. It's going to be a long tough road to recovery and many of our coastal captains and guides know exactly what this feels like. We work in this industry because we love the outdoors and the people. The profit margins are small and events like this are detrimental to these families and small mom n pop businesses. Please donate and help us spread the word as we work to lift them up.

Hurricane Helene has devastated the North Carolina mountains and thei… Cane Faircloth needs your support for North Carolina Mountains Fishing Guides Need Help

08/14/2024

Recreational For-Hire Captains,

For the past two years, North Carolina has been part of an 11-State effort working with offshore wind developers and commercial fishing advisors to establish regional funding for an offshore wind fisheries compensatory mitigation program. The states are working toward selecting a qualified entity to serve as the Regional Fund Administrator (RFA) who will design and develop a fishery mitigation compensation program.

The States and fisheries advisors are seeking interested recreational charter boat and head boat captains to serve on an advisory group referred to as the For-Hire Recreational Fishing Committee. This committee will inform the work of the new RFA during the design and development phase of the program. This stakeholder committee will have a bottom up approach to broadly engage others in the industry by seeking input, guidance and direct advice from the industry as a whole. Other members of the committee will include state representatives and offshore wind developers.

The States will hold a series of webinars August 19, 21, 26 and September 5 for the For-hire industry to learn more about this effort and to ask questions about the selection of fishing industry members.

Informational Webinars:
Interested fishermen can join any of the four webinars. Please consider participating on any of these webinars to learn more about how to apply to be part of the Recreational For-Hire Committee and provide input to the future Regional Fund Administrator.

August 19
4:00 p.m.

Registration

August 21
6:00 p.m.
Registration

August 26
4:00 p.m.
Registration

September 5
5:00 p.m.
Registration

Online Application
Due September 9 at 5:00 p.m.
Click Here

For more information on the background and history of this project:
Click Here

For questions, contact Trish Murphey, with the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.
Email: [email protected]
Call: 252-515-5523

Send a message to learn more