462 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



the exchange value of the total fish product up to what it was in the earlier 

 days, or to prevent the State from slipping backward slightly in rank among 

 the States in value of total fish production. 



During the sixty-year period from 1880 to 1940, the size, distribution, 

 and accessibility of the population of North Carolina have all changed in 

 a direction more favorable to fish than they were formerly. The population 

 of the State increased 155 per cent and was slightly more urban; the six 

 leading cities in the State, all small towns in 1880, had multiplied 83/2 

 times in population by 1940. 



In 1880, facilities for preservation, transportation, and distribution of 

 fish to the inland communities were still crude and primitive. By 1940, 

 the one hundred county seats and those of the neighboring States were 

 connected by a magnificent network of hard surface graded highways suit- 

 able for auto truck transport; ice was everywhere available; mechanical 

 refrigeration and dry ice, frozen food lockers and deep freeze cabinets were 

 coming into widespread use. Airplanes connected the principal coastal 

 points with interior markets. The income and standard of living of the 

 people had enormously improved. All of these changes should be favorable 

 to the distribution and consumption of fish. 



The State has an assortment of seafoods which includes two of the five 

 ranking money value fish items in the United States, oyster and shrimp; 

 it was among the largest producers of the bay scallop before the catastrophic 

 decline along with the eel grass; it also has Spanish mackerel, bluefish, gray 

 and spotted trout, striped bass, shad, sea bass, clams, blue crab, pompano, 

 king whiting, white perch, and catfish, all of which are among the choicest 

 seafoods in the country. It can almost be said that the State does not have 

 any coarse or trash fish, for croakers, spot, mullet, and flounders all have 

 excellent edible qualities, and the alewives are perhaps the best of all the 

 herrings. 



Except the shad and, in a qualified sense, the oyster and the scallop, none 

 of the species mentioned so far as we know show any signs of "depletion," 

 or biological scarcity; the production of most of them rises and falls with 

 general economic prosperity and depression or with changes in relative 

 popularity of different species. The shad is probably at a permanent biolog- 

 ical disadvantage and may never be as abundant or important as it was in 

 former years; the scallop may come back when and if the eel grass does, 

 and wild oysters may never support an expanding fishery but they can 

 always be brought back by culture. In quality the wild oyster taken from 

 overworked rocks and crudely prepared may be, as reported, inferior in 

 size, grittiness, grading, etc., yet none of these things is fundamental; no 

 reason has come to light why North Carolina oysters, with the will, incentive, 



