Folks in this area seem to have a sixth sense of where to find fresh seafood. They found Motts Channel Seafood, even before it opened. Onwer Gene Long didn’t know when he decided to open Motts Channel Seafood just how lucky his timing would be. Shortly after he started work on the project, the owners of Hanover Seafood Partners — formerly Hieronymus Brothers Seafood — decided to close their Airlie Road seafood dock. The decision left local fishermen with a shortage of places to buy it.
Long has a lengthy history in the seafood business. “I’ve fished since I was eight-years old, and I’ve been a part-time commercial fisherman. Then I really got interested in the fishing business and I went into the smoked fish business in New York. I was there for three years. We smoked tuna and salmon, and I was in charge of purchasing. But the cold weather got to me, and I came back here in 1984.” Long then sold boats for Carolina Inlet Marina and Page’s Creek Marine, but he missed the fish business. He began to look for a site for a fish house. “Capt. Linwood Roberts has been on this beach all his life,” Long said. “I started fishing with him when I was just a kid. He had this building rebuilt nine years ago after they condemned the old one, but it had just been sitting here because he couldn’t find the kind of tenant he wanted. I can’t believe how lucky I was to get it.”
The building was custom-designed as a seafood dock and shop. The concrete floor slopes to a half-dozen drains, and Long washes down the entire place with disinfectant every night. Even on the day after a big load has come in, the shop has virtually no seafood odor. Long, who also worked for a while as a builder, built the docks, the cooler, the freezer compartment, and the retail counter. He also installed an icemaker that churns out 30,000 pounds of ice daily. He plans to sell ice as well as fish. “I remember when I was a kid, people used to line up here to buy fish,” he said. “I hope that will happen again. “I know fish; I can look at a fish and just about tell how many days old they are. There will be tons of fish in here soon. It’s my goal only to sell the very freshest I can find. I’ve got lots of contacts up and down the coast, and that should help.”