144 



MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



TABLE 1 

 Oyster Production — Maryland and North Carolina — 1880 to k 



Year 



1880 

 1887 

 1888 

 1889 

 1890 

 1891 

 1897 

 1899 

 1900 

 1 901 

 1902 

 1904 

 1908 



Maryland 

 10,600,000 bushels 

 8,148,217 

 8,531,658 



10,450,087 

 9,945,058 

 7,254,934 



North Carolina 

 170,000 bushels 

 212,980 

 204,703 

 1,001,620 

 807,260 (2,700,000 est.f) 



5,685,561 



4,326,415 

 5,830,000 



858,818 

 2,450,000 1 



1,900,000 t 



1,022,813 



753,500 



* Statistics, except those marked t, revised by the U. S. Bur. Fish., to exclude, so far as possible, 

 seed oysters, from Fishery Industries of the United States, 1930. 

 t Grave (1904). 



season than ever before or since in the history of the industry. The supply 

 seemed inexhaustible, and increased preparations were made for the next 

 year. When the season of 1899 opened, oysters were scarce and the oyster- 

 men found it difficult to secure as bountiful a harvest as during the previous 

 year. Grave (1904) states, "On the beds where a dredger could take 400 to 

 800 tubs of oysters per day during the season of 1898-99, the same men 

 with the same equipment in December, 1900, could average but about 50 

 to 100 tubs." From personal experience while working in Pamlico Sound, 

 Captain John A. Nelson, Commissioner of Fisheries for North Carolina, 

 recalls the great abundance of oysters in 1898 and the relative scarcity the 

 next fall. Some attributed this scarcity to over-fishing; others, to the severe 

 storms that occurred in August and October of 1899, which were the most 

 violent and destructive to the coast of North Carolina for many years. 

 Grave (1904) investigated the area to determine the causes of the dimin- 

 ished catch and found that 23 per cent of the oysters were sanded in exposed 

 areas. He concluded that "close and indiscriminate dredging has done more 

 damage to the Pamlico oyster grounds in the past two seasons than any such 



storms as those of August and October, 1899 " 



Federal statistics from 1900 to 1927 are spaced at intervals of from 2 to 

 8 years; the general trend in production through the intervening years was 

 downward and reached a low in 19 18. Between 19 18 and 1923, production 

 increased nearly threefold. There may be several reasons for this rise. The 

 beds, possibly lying idle or worked at a minimum during the war years,^ had 

 an opportunity to recuperate and to build up a natural supply in excess of 



