Dear OBX friends. As we here in the OBX know well during June, July, Aug. and September trash rains on us from every angle and we do our best to keep as much as we can away from getting in the water, especially in the Sound. It has been a habit (for some) every fall to use our waters as a dumping ground for fish, crabs, oyster shells, shrimp heads and yes, deer carcass too. We all use the same waters for playing, boating, fishing and not to mention there are oysters been farmed just to the south of the bridge. I know what you're thinking... "it all goes away". NO IT DOES NOT! By the time fall comes to the area most of the crabs have been harvested and I have never see a Striper or a Trout with deer meat when cleaning them, have you?

WE NEED TO STOP THIS NOW! I hope the person or persons responsible for all these deer and trash dumping in this area finds a good trash can very, very soon. We are keeping an eye on things!

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Dear OBX friends. As we here in the OBX know well during June, July, Aug. and September trash rains on us from every angle and we do our best to keep as much as we can away from getting in the water, specially in the Sound. It has been a habit (for some) every fall to use our waters as a dumping ground for fish, crabs, oyster shells, shrimp heads and yes deer carcass too. We all use the same waters for playing, boating, fishing and not to mention there are oysters been farmed just to the south of the bridge. I know what you're thinking... "it all goes away". NO IT DOES NOT! By the time fall comes to the area most of the crabs have been harvested and I have never see a Stripper or a Trout with deer meet when cleaning them, have you?

WE NEED TO STOP THIS NOW! I hope the person or persons responsible for all these deer and trash dumping in this area finds a good trash can very very soon. We are keeping an eye on things!

I'll be honest... I never thought there was a problem with returning dead sea life back to the water. I assumed there were any number of other organisms out there that would break them down and benefit from the free meal... crabs just being one of them. Deer carcasses... yeah, that seems a bit much.

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I’ve been after people for years that like to throw fish carcasses in the water from the fish cleaning table. As the fish decay they become buoyant and end up on the shore stinking like crazy. Here in the Keys there’s no better way to spoil your vacation than stinking fish in the mangroves.
Grind them up for chum, or throw them in the trash!

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Thank you for posting!
This has been a habit in this area for a very long time, back to when there were few of us living in the area. Those days are over now and those animals that used to clean up all the stuff have now a high $ signs on them and not as many in numbers as they used to be.
I just hope the town sees this and start to "clean" this up for everyone.

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I remember when there was a shark dump behind Cape Point Campground. Fortunately times have changed and most sharks caught are released. The old wisdom was that sharks were bad so people would let them die and dump them.
I also remember Marlin being weighed at the docks in Hatteras and then dragged out in the Sound and dumped. Such a waste!

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When I was walking Oden’s dock this past spring I saw at least three or four boats filleting fish on their railings and just dumping the fish carcass in the water at the dock.

Seemed like a pretty normal practice in Hatteras.

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When I was walking Oden’s dock this past spring I saw at least three or four boats filleting fish on their railings and just dumping the fish carcass in the water at the dock.

Seemed like a pretty normal practice in Hatteras.

You saw it but it doesn’t sound right to me. The last thing Breakwater needs is a bunch of dead fish floating around. I’ve seen people throw the guts/innards overboard in a Marina but not Fish carcasses.
I’ve also never seen a fish cleaned on a railing. Did you mean gunwales?

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I think I'm going to hit the Little Bridge this afternoon. God willing I'll have a carcass disposal problem to solve this evening.

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When I was walking Oden’s dock this past spring I saw at least three or four boats filleting fish on their railings and just dumping the fish carcass in the water at the dock.

Seemed like a pretty normal practice in Hatteras.

You saw it but it doesn’t sound right to me. The last thing Breakwater needs is a bunch of dead fish floating around. I’ve seen people throw the guts/innards overboard in a Marina but not Fish carcasses.
I’ve also never seen a fish cleaned on a railing. Did you mean gunwales?

Squid I’m not a sailor, you know that. I just saw folks gutting and filleting fish on make shift tables and boat railings and they just tossed anything unwanted overboard.

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This mentality here in the OBX has to stop! People who make a living from these waters we all play in should know better than trash them every single day! Hundreds of pounds of lg. shrimp heads are dump near the Mann's Harbor Bridge every fall, these heads sink for a few days and then come up on the beach, you can't be near these sites for days.
Dumping during the night at this location has become a "normal" thing to do specially during hunting season, like some local told me "it all goes away". Very sad. Now, don't get me wrong..we all pollute just by been alive but this is just wrong!

Come on guys...please...take your trash bag and find a trash can, we only have one Sound and we all like sea food!

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I think I'm going to hit the Little Bridge this afternoon. God willing I'll have a carcass disposal problem to solve this evening.

Did you catch anything. I'm heading down Saturday morning for a few days to fish the sound.

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When I was fishing the sound back in the spring, I had a couple of tuna heads/carcasses float by me. This was out from the duck blind by the bridge.

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I think I'm going to hit the Little Bridge this afternoon. God willing I'll have a carcass disposal problem to solve this evening.

Did you catch anything. I'm heading down Saturday morning for a few days to fish the sound.

No. I had to work and got there late (~4:15) and fished until 5:20. No one was catching anything that I could see and the mosquitoes got bad. I also don't fish from the bridge proper... I stand on the little point of land behind the bath house there beside that wooden structure where some folks fish from. The tide was moving pretty good and there was a whirlpool like effect all around that wooden structure and down to where I was fishing and there was a lot of "trash" in that mix, i.e. grass and sludge and what not. I'm hoping it is just stuff stirred up by the blow because I've not seen that before.

I will be back there quite a bit in upcoming weeks though. They are catching fish there. TWs has posted some picks including a 6 lb trout recently. A few guys here on the street went there Monday evening and got some puppy drum. In mid-October I caught several trout there with the biggest being 19" all on popping cork. I'm hoping last night was just a slow one and I'll be sure to bring my Off next time.

EDIT: If the weather is good you will probably do OK. No rain that I see, but I don't know what the wind is supposed to do. The sound fishing has been hot. I was here from Oct 9-24th and my dad and I kayak fished from Rodanthe down to Buxton and the trout fishing was on fire with a few small pups in the mix (largest was ~25") and a lot of lizard fish. Most of the trout were ~18" with a few 20" thrown in, one 22" and a 26". We caught very few shorts.

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FWIW, there is a fishing cleaning table at the Little Bridge with a sign above it that states... "Please feed the crabs." I meant to take a pic of it tonight, but forgot.

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FWIW, there is a fishing cleaning table at the Little Bridge with a sign above it that states... "Please feed the crabs." I meant to take a pic of it tonight, but forgot.

What crabs? By the time falls comes most of the Blue crabs in the area have been taken out, ask where they're sold and they will tell you. Why can we just feed a bird or two at a time when food for those with wings is not as plenty as early on in the year and try to keep the shore line and the Sound clean, free from all the stuff polluting and stinking everybody's water? How does one feels if a truck pulls up to your front yard and dumps, a dead deer or two, dead fish parts, bait, food not to mention cups, bottles, bags of all types etc. Why does anyone want to pollute where they make a living from?

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FWIW, there is a fishing cleaning table at the Little Bridge with a sign above it that states... "Please feed the crabs." I meant to take a pic of it tonight, but forgot.

What crabs? By the time falls comes most of the Blue crabs in the area have been taken out, ask where they're sold and they will tell you. Why can we just feed a bird or two at a time when food for those with wings is not as plenty as early on in the year and try to keep the shore line and the Sound clean, free from all the stuff polluting and stinking everybody's water? How does one feels if a truck pulls up to your front yard and dumps, a dead deer or two, dead fish parts, bait, food not to mention cups, bottles, bags of all types etc. Why does anyone want to pollute where they make a living from?

I get it, I’m just pointing out that Nags Head or whoever maintains that property is encouraging dumping in the sound and the Little Bridge gets a lot of fishing pressure. Maybe reach out to them to change the message there. It will reach a lot of people.

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FWIW, there is a fishing cleaning table at the Little Bridge with a sign above it that states... "Please feed the crabs." I meant to take a pic of it tonight, but forgot.

What crabs? By the time falls comes most of the Blue crabs in the area have been taken out, ask where they're sold and they will tell you. Why can we just feed a bird or two at a time when food for those with wings is not as plenty as early on in the year and try to keep the shore line and the Sound clean, free from all the stuff polluting and stinking everybody's water? How does one feels if a truck pulls up to your front yard and dumps, a dead deer or two, dead fish parts, bait, food not to mention cups, bottles, bags of all types etc. Why does anyone want to pollute where they make a living from?

I get it, I’m just pointing out that Nags Head or whoever maintains that property is encouraging dumping in the sound and the Little Bridge gets a lot of fishing pressure. Maybe reach out to them to change the message there. It will reach a lot of people.

Thank you for pointing that out! I will look at what is been dumped, how much and at what time of the year.

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