Source:  CAROLINA PUBLIC PRESS, 7/19/22


Editor’s note: This article is part 2 of the 5-part award-winning series Changing Tides, originally posted Sept. 14, 2021. The series is being reposted in July 2022. The series was made possible in part through support from the Pulitzer Center.

The alarm goes off at 3 a.m., and Cole Gibbs, the 21-year-old first mate of the commercial fishing vessel the Salvation, crawls out of bed and pulls a “Make America Fish Again” cap over his shaggy strawberry-blond mop. He hops in his car and drives more than an hour from his home in Elizabeth City to Wanchese, a close-knit fishing community on Roanoke Island.

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