SHAD FISHERIES OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 125 



nets are used in a certain water-course, it is to be expected that the aver- 

 age catch per net will be greater than if that number be increased to 

 100. And while probably in many of the water areas along- the coast 

 the average catch of shad per net is less at present than formerly, yet 

 it is equally probable that the present aggregate yield of shad is much 

 greater than ever before. 



An account of the comparative abundance of shad in each water area 

 will be found in the latter half of this report, containing a dis(;ussion 

 of the fisheries of each separate locality. 



We must not overlook the great length of water-courses formerly 

 abounding in shad from which these fish are now excluded by means of 

 dams and other obstructions. But to offset this there has been a great 

 extension of the fisheries into water areas in which no shad whatever 

 were caught half a century ago. Formerly the great bulk of the yield 

 was obtained from the middle and upper sections of the rivers, while 

 at present nearly all the catch is obtained in the lower section and in 

 the salt water of the estuaries. The extension of the fisheries into the 

 estuaries is of recent origin, dating only from the middle of the present 

 century, and their development has been principally during the past 

 twenty years. It requires large and costly apparatus to prosecute the 

 fisheries there, and forms suitable have come into use only quite 

 recently. 



With the exception of drift nets in Delaware Bay, New York Bay. and 

 one or two less important places, and the mackerel purse seines, which 

 take a few shad on the ISew England coast, pound nets and stake nets 

 are the only forms of apparatus employed in catching shad in salt 

 water. 



Over 90 per cent of the shad caught in salt water of the Chesapeake 

 region are taken in pound nets, yet the use of that apparatus there 

 dates only from ] 865, and not until 1S75 were they extensively employed. 

 Stake nets and pound nets, which catch practically all the shad taken 

 in the salt water of North Carolina, have been used in that region only 

 since 1865. It thus appears that, while the up-river fisheries are 

 decreasing, a very large area is being added to the fishing-grounds. 

 At present nearly half of the total shad yield on the Atlantic sea- 

 board is obtained in salt water, and those fisheries are becoming more 

 extensive each year. 



The following summary shows, approximately and in comparative 

 form for each water area, the number and value of the shad caught in 

 1896 and the number and ijercentage of those taken in salt water. 

 The line of demarcation between the salt and fresh water of the estu- 

 aries being indefinite and variable, this table is only approximately 

 correct for certain regions, but tlie percentage of error is too small to 

 materially affect the general result. 



