BIOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY 193 



Core sounders are smaller boats, usually under 40 feet in total length. 

 Their hull design is of a type developed for use in North Carolina's extensive 

 inside waters. Core sounders are usually powered by gasoline engines of 

 about 100 horsepower. They may or may not be equipped with winches. 

 Often the catch and ice are carried in boxes stowed on deck. Boats of this 

 type are usually owned by the men who operate them. 



THE FISHERY 



In late spring shrimp begin to appear in comercial quantity in North 

 Carolina. An early run in Core and Back sounds is fished with channel nets, 

 the shrimp taken often being designated as channel shrimp. The intensity 

 of trawler activity in the spring is governed by the size of the early popula- 

 tion. By mid- July, the season is in full swing and continues until late fall, 

 when the shrimp disappear from the coastal waters. The season in Pamlico 

 Sound is usually somewhat earlier than the season in the outside waters. 



During the season, extending roughly from July to December, fleets of 

 shrimp trawlers leave port daily in the pre-dawn hours. The length of 

 the trawling day, regulated by law, is from 4:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The 

 duration of a set varies from one to two hours depending upon the antici- 

 pated size of the catch. Population density is sometimes sampled by try- 

 nets while the trawls are overboard. At the end of the set, the trawler heaves 

 to, the net is hauled, and the catch dumped on deck. Another set is made 

 before the catch is sorted. Shrimp, edible fish, and hard and soft crabs are 

 culled and iced. The remainder of the catch is shovelled overboard. The 

 catch is landed daily. The boats return to port or sell their shrimp to "buy- 

 boats," floating agents for dealers that carry out gasoline, ice, and cash and 

 return with shrimp, fish, and crabs. 



In the United States shrimp are sold fresh, canned, frozen, dried or 

 cooked, and peeled. In some localities the heads are dried, ground, and sold 

 as shrimp bran, a stock feed. Almost all of the North Carolina catch is sold 

 fresh, there being virtually no processing facilities in the State. Until re- 

 cently, shrimp heads were discarded, but there are now several reduction 

 plants making meal from shrimp heads and scrap fish. That portion of the 

 North Carolina catch destined to be canned or frozen is sold as fresh shrimp 

 to processors outside the State. Shrimp landed nightly in North Carolina 

 are headed by hand, iced in boxes and delivered by trucks to markets, chiefly 

 Baltimore and New York. The trucks leave the State within 24 hours after 

 the shrimp have been caught. 



NAMES AND CLASSIFICATION 



Shrimps of commercial importance in the southeastern United States belong 

 to five species. Weymouth, Lindner, and Anderson (1933) list machrobra- 



