128 



FISHES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



buck" in the New Bern Journal of November 2); a third was taken in Beaufort 

 Harbor November 2, and another, a female weighing 3.5 pounds, was seined on 

 Bird Shoal at Beaufort November 3. Many more were doubtless taken at that 

 time. Whether such fish have remained in the inshore water since spring or 

 whether they represent a fresh run from the ocean is not known. 



The shad is the leading fish in North Carolina, its annual value being as much 

 as that of the two next important species combined. Extensive fishing is prose- 

 cuted in Cape Fear, Neuse, Pamlico, Roanoke, Chowan, Pasquotank, and Per- 

 quimans rivers, but the principal operations are in Pamlico and Albemarle 

 sounds and the waters connecting them. Dare County has by far the most 

 valuable fisheries, but in Tyrrell, Chowan, Washington, Bertie, and several other 

 counties the industry is also very important. The fluctuations in the shad yield 

 of the state for a series of years, beginning 1880, are here shown: 



Quantity and value of the North Carolina shad catch between 1880 and 1904. 



The leading kinds of apparatus used in taking shad are seines, pound nets, 

 stake nets, and drift nets. The seines are especially important in Albemarle 

 Sound, Neuse, Roanoke and Chowan rivers; the pound nets in Albemarle Sound 

 and tributaries and about Roanoke Island; the stake nets in Pamlico and Albe- 

 marle sounds; the drifts nets in Cape Fear River. In most of the rivers a peculiar 

 form of dip net known as the bow net is used. In the interesting table here pre- 

 sented, the relative importance of the different kinds of apparatus in various 

 years is known. A suggestive feature of the table is the decline of the seine 

 and the increase of the pound net. 



Shad catch of North Carolina, by apparatus, for a term of years. 



