FISHERIES OF PAMLICO AND CORE SOUNDS 63 
by pound nets during the part of the year when immature fish are 
most abundantly taken and during the height of the spawning 
season. 
It has been suggested that increasing the mesh in the cribs of the 
pound nets from 114 to 1% inches or more would permit the escape 
of the smaller fish of all species and thus permit fishing at all times of 
the year with a minimum of wastage. This suggestion, however, is 
vigorously opposed by the fishermen on the grounds that any increase 
in size of mesh would permit the gilling of such quantities of the 
smaller fish in the meshes of the net that it would be impossible to 
operate. They contend that removing the gilled fish from the cribs of 
the nets would consume so much time that pound-net fishing would no 
longer be practical and that the nets would be destroyed by sharks 
feeding upon the gilled fish. Furthermore, it is unlikely that a slight 
increase in the mesh of the cribs would effect the release of the 
smaller sizes in appreciable quantities, for a gray trout from 5 to 6 
inches in length can readily be passed by hand through meshes of a 
14¢-inch pound net, but these small fish follow the lead of the net, 
which is 12 inches or more stretched mesh, and are readily caught. 
If this method were at all feasible, the mesh should be increased so 
as to permit the escape of trout up to 12 inches in length in order 
to protect the fish until one year’s spawning has occurred. Such a 
regulation would practically destroy the pound-net fishery, however, 
for our measurements show that relatively few fish exceeding that 
length are taken in the Pamlico Sound pound nets. It is not likely, 
therefore, that limits upon the size of mesh employed in pound nets 
would ever be an effective means of protecting the gray-trout fishery 
from depletion. 
It is fairly well established that certain areas in Pamlico Sound 
are nurseries for the younger fish. Our records indicate that fishes 
taken on the northwest side of the sound are not only smaller repre- 
sentatives of the year groups but are composed of the younger classes, 
the older fish being notably lacking. Thus, Hyde and Dare Counties, 
including the pound-net areas of Stumpy Point, Englehard, Gull 
Rock, and Pamlico River, may be designated as nursery grounds 
and closed to commercial fishing. The presence of uniformly larger 
fish, most of which are in spawning condition, from May until July 
may be noted in the vicinity of Ocracoke Inlet, and the same con- 
ditions probably obtain at Hatteras as well. Protection may be 
afforded to the spawning stock by prohibiting pound-net fishing in 
these areas, but such regulations could hardly be considered desirable 
when the interests of the fishing populations are considered. Since 
pound netting is the chief industry of the people in these districts, 
the prohibiting of this form of fishing would work extreme hardship. 
Unless more satisfactory methods of protection can not be devised, 
such oppressive measures should be avoided. 
The most promising method of protecting the species is that of 
imposing closed seasons. The most destructive period of fishing 
throughout the sound area is in the early months of the summer, 
when, as has been shown, a maximum wastage of gray trout of 78 
per cent .and 55 per cent, respectively, in June and July occurs in 
certain districts. This tremendous waste of potentially valuable 
fish could be overcome by imposing a closed season on all pound-net 
fishing in Pamlico Sound from the end of the shad season, in May, 
