FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 79, NO. 4 



FISHING GEARS 



The principal gears used in Delaware were 

 purse seines, gill nets, haul seines, pots, lines, and 

 otter trawls. Except for otter trawls, these were 

 mostly inshore gears, and took sturgeon, shad, 

 alewife, weakfish, croaker, striped bass, and other 

 anadromous or coastal species. 



Purse Seines 



Purse seines landed by far the greatest amounts 

 of fishes in Delaware. The peak (Figure 22) was 

 reached in 1953 at 165,000 t (somewhat over 360 

 million lb), the third largest of any state on the 

 Atlantic coast, exceeded only by Virginia and New 

 Jersey. Delaware led the states in menhaden land- 

 ings in 1944-47, 1949, and 1952 and was second in 

 1950 and 1958. The fishery peaked temporarily 

 in the 1940's, as did many fisheries toward the end 

 of the war, but major landings were from 1953 

 to 1962, the decade of prosperity. The fishery 

 collapsed soon after, and the last landings with 

 purse seines were in 1966. Prior to the Second 

 World War, the purse seine fishery was relatively 

 small. 



The purse seine fishery was directed at men- 

 haden, and no other fishes were credited to this 

 gear, although very small numbers of other 

 species may have been taken occasionally. The 

 collapse of this fishery was caused primarily by a 



reduction in abundance following the 1962 fishing 

 year. The purse seine fishery in Virginia had been 

 increasing in intensity during this period, and by 

 1963 relatively few fish survived the Virginia and 

 North Carolina fisheries to migrate farther north. 

 The effect was felt at all points north of Chesa- 

 peake Bay. Probably the only way of preserving 

 the purse seine fisheries to the north, except on 

 those rare occasions when large year classes or 

 reduction in effort allowed some fish to migrate 

 farther north, would have been to prohibit fishing 

 south of Delaware or to place a minimum size on 

 fishing to the south. Either alternative would be 

 virtually impossible because southern fishermen 

 would be certain to oppose it. The effect of such a 

 law, if it could have been passed before a large 

 industry developed in Chesapeake Bay and south- 

 ward, would have been interesting to observe. It is 

 possible, although of course not certain, that the 

 decline might not have been as great. 



Gill Nets 



Four kinds of gill nets have been used in Dela- 

 ware: drift, stake, anchor, and runaround. Drift 

 gill nets were further broken down at times into 

 shad, sturgeon, and other. For practical purposes, 

 these can be broken down into fixed nets, drift 

 nets, and runaround nets. Generally speaking, 

 drift nets were set in slower waters farther down- 

 stream and took large quantities of weakfish and 



CO 

 o 





to 



Q 



z 

 < 



CO 



O 



I 



< 

 UJ 



o 



U- 



o 



CO 



FIGURE 22.— Commercial landings t 

 by pur.se seines in Delaware, 1887-1966, 3 

 and numbers of units of gear licensed. 



590 



