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A fish processing plant, Garland F Fulcher Seafood Co., is still in the heart of town -- occupying a full city block beside the harbor. Its owner, Sherrill Styron, who is the longtime mayor, says he gets a few offers a month from developers. If he gets one good enough, he says, seeing that plant replaced with condominiums "wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit."

Many residents of Oriental say that the town's working waterfront is part of what makes it a community, rather than an amusement park for tourists and retirees.

"This is why I came here," said Barb Venturi, gesturing to Styron's giant shrimp trawlers docked in the town harbor. She moved to Oriental from New Jersey 22 years ago.

Venturi says that the town is working on plans for a community harbor that fishermen could use. But she has no solutions for the industry's bigger problems: falling seafood prices, disappearing fish houses and rising property tax bills for fishermen.

In truth, not everyone would be sad to see commercial fishing go.

At the Tiki Bar, an outdoor gathering spot for pleasure boaters, mention of commercial fishing draws a host of complaints about crab pots blocking the channel, gill nets tangled in boat motors and fishermen who harvest shellfish beneath their docks and set nets just a few feet from their backyards.

Bruno knows that as more homes appear at the waters' edge, the conflicts will only multiply. He already hears stories of fishermen cursed by homeowners. He worries that sport fishermen will push for a ban on gill nets, already in place in Florida and Louisiana.

But he has bills to pay and little time to ponder. So he rises again before dawn and heads out into the quiet river.

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