In 2023, a Morehead City middle schooler named Morgan Norris came home from a trip to New Bern with an idea. She wrote it up as a letter to City Council. Councilman George Ballou had promised her that if she put the idea in writing, he would present it. He read her letter at the council meeting of July 11, 2023, and he made sure it went into the minutes.
Three years later, on October 1, 2026, Norris stood on the City Hall lawn and read that letter aloud again. The Carteret County News-Times reported what she wrote: "On my last visit to New Bern, I noticed decorated bears all around sharing their town spirit. We should show our town spirit by decorating marlins all around our town. I chose marlins because we have a Marlins baseball team."
That ceremony unveiled the first statue in the city's new Adopt-A-Marlin Program. The marlin stands on a downtown that already has plenty of public art, painted by an artist whose work is already on downtown streets. The next marlins will not stay downtown at all.
What's standing at 1100 Bridges Street
The statue is a seven-foot fiberglass blue marlin, painted with an aquatic theme. It sits at City Hall, 1100 Bridges St. According to the city's event listing, the unveiling took place at the southeastern corner of the City Hall property, along Bridges and North 11th streets.
Local artist Chrissy Suralik painted it. She told the News-Times she spent 25 to 30 hours on it. "Public art is always a little nerve wracking because you've got a lot of eyes on it, but this is really exciting," she said.
The city leaders at the ceremony tied the fish to the town's identity. City Manager Randy Martin pointed to this year's Big Rock tournament and to the baseball team that plays at Big Rock Stadium. "Marlins are a deal in Morehead City," he said, as reported by the News-Times. Mayor Lee Stiles called the blue marlin "more than just a fish to us," saying it "has become part of the identity of Morehead City." WCTI12's report from that day also credits Norris with the idea. It describes the statues as both a public-art project and a draw for visitors.
The mayor also thanked former mayor Jerry Jones and former city manager Chris Turner for getting the program started, along with Assistant Finance Officer Sarah Currie and other city staff. The city's own announcement thanked its Public Services team for preparing the site.
Suralik's work was downtown before the marlin
If her style looks familiar, you have probably driven past it. Downtown Morehead City keeps a printable map of its painted signal boxes, the metal traffic-signal cabinets at street corners. Suralik painted two of the five.
| Street | Signal box | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| 4th Street | "Sea Turtle" | Michelle Fairchild |
| 7th Street | "Octopus" | Angel Jablonski |
| 8th Street | "Old Man and the Sea" | Chrissy Suralik |
| 9th Street | "Mermaid" | Michelle Fairchild |
| 10th Street | "Train and Dog Conductor" | Chrissy Suralik and Angel Jablonski |
The map gives street names but no cross streets, so finding the boxes takes a slow walk or drive along those blocks. Seen together, the boxes and the marlin show the same small group of local artists working at very different sizes, from a cabinet you pass at a stoplight to a seven-foot fish on a lawn.
The marlin joins a waterfront already full of fish
The signal boxes are one of three downtown art maps, all linked from the Downtown Morehead City art page. The others cover murals and the sculpted Fish Walk.
The Fish Walk is the oldest idea of the three. It's a series of 12 bas-relief sculptures by Willie Baucom and Keith Lambert, two sculptors with a gallery in neighboring Beaufort. The walk runs along the waterfront boardwalk, starting at South 4th and Arendell Street and ending at the corner of South 7th and Shepard Street. The fish are carved only slightly into the slabs, and there's a blue marlin among them, with smaller fish swimming past. That makes the City Hall statue the second marlin in downtown's public art, not the first.
The downtown mural map lists seven more stops:
- 6th Street Sidewalk Murals, on the South 6th Street block
- Welcome Mural, 600 Evans Street
- Cape Lookout Wall Mural, at the corner of 7th and Evans Streets
- Children's Advocacy Mural, 810 Arendell Street
- Alleyway Mural, 905 Arendell Street
- "Outer Space" Mural, 913 Arendell Street
- Train Mural, 1006 Arendell Street
The Arts Council of Carteret County, at 1702 Arendell Street, is the county's arts organization. The downtown art page lists it alongside Carteret Community Theatre at 1311 Arendell.
The adopted marlins go wherever their adopters are
Here is where the new program parts ways with everything above. The Fish Walk, the murals and the signal boxes are all concentrated in the downtown grid, mostly along Arendell, Evans and the waterfront. The adopted marlins will be spread across town.
Under the city's program FAQs, local businesses and organizations in the Morehead City Planning Area can buy a statue. That area includes both the city limits and the extraterritorial jurisdiction around them. Each buyer chooses an artist, works out a design, and then installs the finished marlin on its own property. A statue could end up outside an office, a shop or a restaurant anywhere in that area, not only along the waterfront.
The FAQs set out the basic terms:
- The statue costs $2,500, which includes a 4x8 printed plaque.
- The painting, clear coat and installation are paid for separately. The buyer and the artist agree on the price of the artwork.
- Buyers can pick their own artist, as long as the design follows the program guidelines. The city offers a list of local artists, a list of clear-coat vendors and an installation guide.
- Moving a statue later needs the city's coordination and approval, so the maps and promotional materials stay accurate.
The steps run in order. Businesses apply, the selected applicants are notified and start working with an artist, then the purchase and design get approved, and last comes installation and promotion. Business owners who are interested can find current details on the city's Adopt-A-Marlin Program page. The city sets the terms, so confirm them there before committing to a purchase or hiring an artist.
The first round is about two dozen marlins. The city's November 2025 announcement said the first public release would be 23 marlins, chosen by lottery. City Council minutes from November 12, 2025 describe an initial order of 25 statues, with one set aside for City Hall. At the unveiling, Stiles described what he hopes it will look like: "Over time, imagine these marlins throughout Morehead City. Each one different, each one telling a different story, but all of them representing one community."
The relocation rule hints at what comes next. The city expects to keep a map of the marlins, the same way Downtown Morehead City maps its murals and signal boxes. Once marlins appear outside the downtown grid, that map will cover far more of town than any of the current art maps.
A walk from the newest piece to the oldest
For now, you can see the City Hall marlin and the downtown collection on one walk, using only the addresses on the official maps:
- Start at the marlin at City Hall, 1100 Bridges St.
- Head to Arendell Street for the Train Mural at 1006, then the "Outer Space" Mural at 913, the Alleyway Mural at 905 and the Children's Advocacy Mural at 810.
- Keep an eye out for the signal boxes on 10th, 9th, 8th, 7th and 4th streets, including Suralik's two.
- Take Evans Street to the Cape Lookout Wall Mural at 7th and Evans, the Welcome Mural at 600 Evans and the sidewalk murals on South 6th.
- Finish on the Fish Walk, which runs between South 7th and Shepard and South 4th and Arendell, and look for the carved marlin.
For a longer outing, the Crystal Coast Tourism Authority describes the Promise Land Heritage Walk, a sidewalk loop through the town's original Promise Land neighborhood. It starts in City Park and follows Evans, 13th, Shackleford, 17th, Sheppard and 15th streets back to the start. The city's pedestrian plan puts that loop at 2.3 miles, starting and ending at Morehead City Park.
The next marlin will appear wherever a business adopts one, and it won't necessarily be on that route.
Here at NC Coastal Team, we keep track of the local projects that change how a town looks from week to week, and around two dozen painted marlins will do exactly that in Morehead City. If you spot a new one going up, or you're a business owner thinking about adopting one, let us know. We'd love to see where the next marlin lands.
