FISHERIES OF PAMLICO AND CORE SOUNDS 37 
A modification of this method of hauling, called ‘‘swiping,”’ is 
practiced by a few crews. This consists in merely laying out the 
nets, surrounding a given area of water, and then taking them in. 
There is no hauling done except to close the ends of the nets. This 
method is employed chiefly to save the expense of fuel used in hauling, 
which usually takes from three to four hours, but this is not the 
common practice. 
The haul must be on a clean bottom, with the tide, and usually 
with the wind, otherwise the boats could not pull the seines because 
of the accumulating amount of floating grass. It must be made in 
a place where shallow water is at least a mile away and in which the 
nets can be removed both by power and by hand. Such shallow 
water in North Carolina generally consists of sandy shoals, and the 
suitable hauls are so well known and recognized that several crews 
frequently await their turns to fish a productive ground. Owing to 
the gradual process by which the nets are removed, the small fish 
apparently have time to escape. Often fish can be seen forcing the 
nets before the bunt net has been put out, and the presence of large- 
sized gilled fish in the pairs of seines removed by power indicates 
that the fish are attempting to.escape during the cutting-out process. 
The bunt net serves a necessary purpose in preventing the frightened 
fish from rushing the net and gilling or escaping, and also serves to 
protect the fishermen from the attacks of stingrays, which are of 
frequent occurrence in the catches. 
Owing to the relatively high cost of equipment for this type of 
fishing, which is valued at about $4,000, and to the relatively small 
number of haul areas available, there were not more than 25 crews 
operating in Pamlico and Core Sounds in the summer of 1925. Each 
crew usually sells to the buy boat of a fish dealer, who is under agree- 
ment to take the season’s catch. The nets usually are laid out at 
about 6 o’clock in the morning, and the catch is aboard the buy boat 
by 2 or 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Some of the crews do not land 
their catch until later in the afternoon, while others, more energetic, 
may sometimes make two hauls in a single day, ending their last 
haul in the dark. 
METHODS OF INVESTIGATION 
To determine the actual composition of the catches of the two 
types of gear, it is obviously necessary to visit personally the vari- 
ous fishing areas and to inspect the unsorted catches of fish when 
taken. Representative areas should be chosen for examination, and 
the study should be continued during the whole fishing season. 
In the sampling of the pound-net catch a route was selected cov- 
ering as nearly as possible representative portions of Pamlico Sound, 
no pound netting being carried on in Core Sound; but choice of locali- 
ties was limited by the fact that pound nets are fished only in the 
early morning, five days a week. (See fig. 6.) On this account, and 
on account of the distances to be covered, but one pound-net station 
could be visited daily. The following localities were visited regu- 
larly once each week, with the exception of one station that was 
discontinued because of lack of fish: Lupton, with 15 to 20 stands 
of nets set off Cedar Island; Brant Island, with 6 to 8 stands of nets 
off the mouth of the Neuse River along Brant Island Shoal; Gull 
