90 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



sounds, upon which the fisheries principally depended, were found to be very 

 poor in yield of oil. 



In spite of the adverse conditions experienced by others, a factory was 

 built in 1870 at Oregon Inlet by the Church Brothers of Rhode Island. 

 During the first season they employed a steamer for the operations, but in 

 the second year they abandoned the steamer operation and attempted to carry 

 on the fishery by small sailing vessels. At the end of two seasons the opera- 

 tions were suspended because of the strong current which kept the vessels 

 from passing freely into and out of the sound. The record shows that the 

 Church Brothers engaged in activity with a Mr. Etheridge of Roanoke Island, 

 but does not indicate whether it was in the prosecution of the menhaden 

 fishery or some other fishery activity. 



In 1 87 1 a factory was established at the mouth of the Cape Fear by the 

 Navassa Oil and Guano Company. This venture lasted two years and then 

 it was closed at a $10,000 loss because of the poor oil yield and the small 

 amount of fish taken. In 1879 Captain I. Kain of Roanoke Island, having 

 convinced himself by experiment that a menhaden plant could be made suc- 

 cessful, established a plant on Roanoke Island. During his first year of opera- 

 tion, his venture failed because the fish did not enter the sound. What 

 happened after the first year is not known, although a commentator writing 

 in 1880 indicated that Captain Kain did continue for that year. 



From this unpromising and discouraging beginning, the menhaden industry 

 in North Carolina has grown to one of large proportions and now takes an 

 important place in the economic life of the seaboard region of the State. In 

 1948, 198,270,000 pounds of menhaden were processed in eight plants. The 

 value of the produce from these fish was $3,901,605. During this year North 

 Carolina produced slightly more than 19 per cent of the quantity captured 

 on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and the dollar value was nearly 18 per cent 

 of the total value of these fish on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. 



For the nine-year period 1940-48, North Carolina produced 1,179,279,980 

 pounds of menhaden valued at $17,996,700. The quantity landed represented 

 17.28 per cent of the total of menhaden on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and 

 the dollar value represented 16.6 per cent of the total money value. 



Menhaden, like all other products of the sea, has shown a remarkable 

 increase in value during the last ten years. This has no doubt come about by 

 reason of the serious shortage of animal proteins and oils and, of course, by 

 inflation or general rise of all prices. The last three years ■ have been very 

 favorably affected by the decline of competition from the pilchard industry 

 on the West Coast. Even before these inflationary conditions arose, the men- 

 haden had been the object of one of the most important and generally profit- 

 able fisheries of North Carolina. In the country at large it has always 



2. This chapter on the menhaden was written in the spring of 1949. 



