80 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



out again to sea in winter, with the result that the fisheries of the State are 

 mostly seasonal and highly variable. 



At sea the waters are controlled by oceanic conditions. North Carolina 

 lies between the sub-tropical Florida-Caribbean region with the Gulf Stream 

 close to shore, and the colder northern sub-arctic region where the Gulf 

 Stream is far out to sea, with its great, stable year-round fisheries; with 

 Cape Hatteras apparently a natural dividing point between these regions, 

 the State marks the northern limit of one and the southern limit of the other, 

 and its assortment of fishes is of an in-between composition. North Carolina 

 does not seem to have any dominant species which it can call its own ; it has 

 some shrimp, Spanish mackerel, speckled trout, bluefish, and mullet, but 

 (if production is any indication), less than are found farther south; and 

 some croaker, gray trout, striped bass, and oysters, but less of them than 

 Chesapeake Bay; it has, however, perhaps a greater variety of fishes than 

 any other Atlantic state, and fortunately those it does have are mainly the 

 choice or deluxe varieties and these mostly the invertebrates, oysters, shrimp, 

 crabs, scallops, and clams. 



When the migrant fishes, young and adult, leave the sounds, their destina- 

 tions at sea are mostly unknown. No doubt some of them go south; some 

 probably proceed to the deeper continental shelf, there to feed or hibernate 

 until their next return. In recent years a new winter trawl fishery has been 

 established offshore from the Virginia Capes to a little south of Cape Hatteras, 

 as a result of the discovery of the winter quarters of some of the species which 

 inhabit the sounds in summer; further exploration may reveal similar oppor- 

 tunities farther south of Hatteras. Some fishes such as the menhaden and 

 Spanish mackerel perform long coastwise migrations from the north to the 

 Florida region, making North Carolina a port of call on their way. The 

 strategy of the North Carolina fishermen is to know intimately the move- 

 ments of the various fishes so as to find and catch them when and where they 

 are present. 



In addition to the variability caused by migrations, most if not all fishes 

 seem to be subject to cycles of abundance and scarcity. These cycles are of 

 irregular occurrence and duration and, in the present state of fishery science, 

 are not predictable. In part, no doubt, local fluctuations in abundance are 

 caused by migrations or geographic shifts in the centers of population of 

 freely-moving species, but in another part the actual total population of each 

 species itself varies, sometimes widely. As examples, annual alewife produc- 

 tion in the twenty-two statistical canvasses made since 1887, has varied in 

 North Carolina from 5 to 17 million pounds, bluefish from 323,000 to over 

 2 million, croakers from 286,000 to nearly 10 million, etc. In the case of each 

 species, good periods are followed by lean periods, and vice versa, so that it 



