outhport Seafood Company was recently established by Mary, Jason & Holden Stegall. Our mission is to build upon the traditional ways of catching fresh seafood and distribute only the finest quality catch.

Our captain, Bill, has over 45 years experience and captains the custom built 36' Harkers Island vessel named Sea Eagle. This boat has recently been outfitted for off-shore commercial fishing. Our target species are King Mackerel, Snapper, Grouper, Grunts, Beeliners, Mahi-Mahi, Wahoo, Tuna, Cobia and more.

Since our boat is smaller than most commercial vessels, our trips are much shorter primarily due to fuel capacity. In return our fish is much fresher. The larger commercial vessels that dominate most of the wholesale business spend 20 days or more at sea and then an additional 5-10 days shipping the seafood to retail stores where it's finally consumed. Therefore in most cases, the fish you enjoy at fine restaurants is almost 30 days old.

Southport Seafood Company strives to keep the catch to consumption time to less than 5 days! Our high tech communication system from ship to shore allows us to be notified immediately when the fish are caught. We then can contact our select wholesale buyers and schedule immediate pick up or delivery when the boat arrives to the dock.

When we aren't offshore fishing, we are chasing brown and white shrimp. We spend almost 6 months of the year fishing offshore and 6 months fishing for shrimp. When the weather keeps the boat at dock, we are still on the water in smaller vessels retrieving fresh blue crabs from our pots.

Bill has brought his many years of fishing expertise to us and we are grateful to have one of the top captains in the industry. He has been fishing since 1963 every year until his recent battle with colon cancer forced a treatment stay.

We are very fortunate that he was able to beat the cancer and is now back doing what he is most passionate about, fishing. His traditional fishing methods along with his peculiar desire for perfection are qualities that make our seafood company the finest around.

In addition to his professional fishing life, Bill serves as the Chairman of Brunswick County Fisheries: a position he was appointed to by the County Commissioners. He served with the NC Marine Fisheries in 1996 passing a new law prohibiting shrimping hours to only 1 hour before sun up and 1 hour after sun down.

The fishing pressure at this time was destined to ruin the shrimp industry in our area. The passing of this new regulation proved to be a huge success as the catch numbers the following year increased nearly 27%. This short fishing cutoff time gave the shrimp time to regroup and adapt to conditions more naturally.

Capt. Bill is a steward of the industry and continues to serve as Chairman for Brunswick County. In addition to his time serving as Chairman, he also holds the patent for a shrimp net fish excluder that allows 70% of fish to escape without losing any shrimp. This excluder is required by law on all shrimp boats in the entire State of Texas and Louisiana.

Southport Seafood Co. and Capt. Bill have made a commitment to continue to educate and preserve the fishing industry. We are currently members of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, Goodness Grows in NC, Local Harvest, Seafood Alliance, Carolina Farm Stewardship, Southern Kingfish Association, Slow Food USA and Triangle.

Please visit our Links page to learn more about these groups.

Thank you for supporting your local fisherman!