SHAD FISHERIES OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. IHI 



River shad were shipped by rail to distant markets, but the small catch 

 of recent years has not furnished a surplus above the local demand. 



In New River, Stone Bay, and other estuaries between Cape Fear 

 River and Cape Lookout no especial attention is given to shad, but 

 several hundred are taken annually in the mullet fisheries. The num- 

 ber thus caught is increasing, and doubtless profitable fisheries could 

 be established. 



Cape Lookout marks a distinctive change in the physical characteris- 

 tics of the Atlantic coast streams. Below that cape all the rivers 

 empty directly into the ocean, maintaining their fluvial characteristics 

 almost, if not quite, to the mouth. From Cape Lookout to Cape Cod 

 the streams empty into large sounds or bays, as Pamlico, Albemarle, 

 and Long Island sounds, and Chesapeake, Delaware, New York, and 

 Narragansett bays. The river mouths are usually broad estuaries, 

 resembling arms of sounds and bays rather than rivers. The Neuse and 

 the Pamlico rivers, in North Carolina, and the James, Rappahannock, 

 Potomac, and Choptank, of Chesapeake Bay, are examples of this type. 

 Other streams north of Cape Lookout possess this characteristic to a 

 greater or less extent. This physical change aft'ects the shad fisheries 

 in three important particulars, viz: (1) The use of fixed apparatus of 

 capture, as stake nets and pound nets, is made practicable; (2) the 

 excessive concentration of the fisheries near the mouth is restricted ; 

 and (3) the beginning of the season is delayed several days. 



PAMLICO SOUND. 



Pamlico Sound is an irregular body of water, covering about 1,660 

 square miles and separated from the sea by a long, narrow sand beach 

 known as " The Banks." At the north end it communicates with Albe- 

 marle Sound through Roanoke and Croatan sounds, and on the south it 

 joins Core Sound, much of the waters of those sounds passing through 

 Pamlico Sound, and two large rivers, the Neuse and Pamlico, enter 

 from the west. The waters of Pamlico Sound and its tributaries com- 

 municate with the sea through Ocracoke, Hatteras, New, and Oregon 

 inlets, each less than half a mile across. 



The shad fisheries of this sound, like those of most of the salt-water 

 estuaries of the Atlantic coast, are of comparatively recent development, 

 originating about 1873 and receiving their greatest development 

 during the past ten years. They are located in the northeast third of 

 the sound, east of a line drawn from Hatteras Inlet to Sandy Point, 

 and nearly 90 per cent are above a line drawn from Sandy Point to 

 New Inlet. The principal fishing stations are the marsh islands and 

 points at the extreme upper end of Pamlico Sound, the most important 

 of which are Roanoke Marshes, Hog Island, Buck Island, Stumpy 

 Point, Sandy Point, and Old Point. Most of these stations are inhab- 

 ited only during the fishing season, the men returning to their homes on 

 the uplands at the end of the season. In addition to the above-named 

 F. R. 98 11 



