Eco tours keeping captains on water

MOUNT PLEASANT -- The fishing bug bit Daniel Neese not long after he came to Charleston in 1989. But when he turned to making a profession of it a few years ago, he had concerns.

The saltwater fishing industry in South Carolina was taking a beating. Federal catch restrictions and the recession were cutting into the customers who had hired thousands of boats for millions of trips each year.

The "head boats," the daily charters that used to take people offshore by the dozens, were out of business.

But Neese is now part of a trend in local tourism -- specialty guides for customers who want trips on short notice, customized for however much fishing or touring the customer wants to do. A growing number of fishing guides are catching on.

It might become the niche beleaguered fishing guides are looking for, saving their pride-and-joy profession by hooking a bigger share of the $600 million beach tourism industry.

When Neese earned his sea captain certification, the Lowcountry already had more than 300 captains, the professionals who guide custom fishing trips. They were so worried about being forced out of work that they had organized to fight any more restrictions.

Neese, 40, of Mount Pleasant, wasn't sure he could make a go of it with his 20-footer, the Knot Stressed. For him, it was just a part-time venture, but he wanted eventually to make it full time.

"If I ever got that serious into it, how serious could I take it?" he asked himself. He just found out. He completed a sea captain tour-guide class and works with a company that contracts with resorts and hotels to provide the specialty guides.

He brought the Knot Stressed into Shem Creek on Friday after a day of slaying redfish with a customer and his son. The customers got a lot more for their money.

If they asked what bird that was, Neese could tell them a ring-necked gull. If one of them mistakenly called the surfacing creature a porpoise, Neese could casually mention later that it was a bottlenosed dolphin.

If they asked about a structure in the water, he could tell them what it was and how it played into the history of the Charleston port.

When Neese first heard about the sea captain tour-guide course, the diehard angler thought, "who's going to go out and look at a bunch of stuff" when they're paying him to fish. But then he found himself looking at that stuff when he was out there and wondering about it.

He enrolled in the $300 course, a partnership between Clemson Extension and USOBE, a boating excursion company formed by Vickie Waller and her husband, fishing guide Michael Waller. The course teaches ecology and history alongside the economics of the region, even etiquette for tour guides, one of those fine points that fishing guides don't always focus on.

"Everybody who comes to the coast wants to do a sea tour. This is a real values activity for the town, and the hotels love it," said Harry Crissy, Clemson Extension regional economic and community development agent.

"Eighty percent of the tourism is not fishing. Most (sea) captains get into their business because they want to fish, but people want to get out and have a good time," Vickie Waller said.

"Whether they are a fishing guide or want to do eco tours, it doesn't hurt for them to know what creatures and buildings they are passing on the water," she said. "It gives customers that kind of experience that makes them want to come back to Charleston and do it again."

John Fuss of Holy City Fishing in Charleston also took the course.

"I prefer fishing. If I could fish, I'd fish," he said. But he was looking for something to bring in more business during the slow winter season, and keep customers happier in a season when the catch restrictions are some of the toughest.

The eco-tour aspect is more fun and less pressure for him.

"It gives you a little more to talk to your clients about. It's more than a fishing trip. They just haven't realized it (when they get onboard)," he said.

Neese, a Mount Pleasant police officer, came to the Lowcountry from Elgin in the Midlands, to play soccer for Charleston Southern University. If you ask Kristine Neese, his wife, fishing is why he stayed.

He gets up before daybreak to get out on the water. When she heard about the charter business, she said, "Finally, he's finally fishing for money. Isn't that what everybody wants, to do what they love for a living?"

His new focus on ecology and history makes the venture something that ties into his family's interests more, she said. When she went out on of those crack-of-dawn trips, she stared down in the water and watched a sea turtle rise to stare back. "I get it," she said.

The fishing business might be shaky, Neese said, but eco tours are just staring to take off.

"That helps me immensely. If I can do several of them per day, that's incredible," he said. "When you're looking (at things) from the water it's a whole different world. I can take people out every day on the water, show people my town. It is an absolute blast."

Reach Bo Petersen at 937-5744 or follow him on Twitter at @bopete.