COMMERCIAL FISHERIES. 409 



mouth mullets offer, therefore, a clean and attractive appearance, and are said to be of better 

 flavor; they are eargerly sought in the markets of Washington, N. C, New Bern, and Greenville. 

 While mullets are not fished with purse seines, occasionally when a large school of mullets 

 is seen while looking for menhaden, a good haul is made in such a seine. 



At the stationary fisheries, such as the Mullet Pond fishery on Shackleford Banks, a 

 seine similar to the drag net is used. When the lookout reports a school of fish within their 

 grounds, the boat bearing the seine is put off, the staff on one end of the net is left near the 

 beach, and the boat is rowed around the school with the net paying off over the stern (opera- 

 tion called "shooting the net")- The fish are then hauled on the beach. They may be 

 cleaned and salted at the fishery before being sold. While there used to be a number of these 

 fisheries on the banks and islands north of Beaufort, the Mullet Pond fishery is the only one 

 that does now so well as ten or fifteen years ago. This is due, not, perhaps, to diminution in 

 the nuinber of the fish, but to the scattering of them by the more extensive fishing of recent 

 years. A smaller number is now taken from any given area. South of Beaufort there is still 

 a considerable number of these fisheries. 



The limit of the length of hauling nets imposed by law (225 yards) is evaded by working 

 in groups. A large area is in fact more readily surrounded by several short seines than by a 

 single long one. Four seines may be used to enclose a diamond-shaped pound, as follows: 

 Two skiff's take positions together on one side of the area to be e.nclosed, and the other two 

 at the ends respectively. From each boat one man gets overboard, keeping one end of the 

 seine belonging to his boat. The two skiffs that were together are then rowed apart and 

 toward the initial positions of the other two skiffs, each traversing thus one side of the diamond 

 and "shooting the net" as it goes. Meantime the two skiffs at the ends have been rowed to 

 meet each other at an angle. When these latter skiffs have met (at the fourth angle of the 

 diamond) and the former skiffs have reached the initial positions of the latter, the diamond 

 is complete and each seine occupies one side of it. The fish within the enclosed area may now 

 be frightened into the nets, or, if there is a good current, the staffs, two at each angle, are 

 advanced toward the center and the seines drift with the tide to form gradually flattening 

 loops swinging away from the eight staffs grouped together. Where possible, mullets are 

 landed instead of pounded, and the seines would then be used to form two sides of a larger 

 half-diamond or the circumference of a semi-circle, with the shore as diagonal or diameter. 

 Mullets are shipped chiefly to the markets of North Carolina, Virginia, and the eastern 

 shore of Maryland. Norfolk is a distributing point for neighboring regions of these three states. 

 While large quantities of mullets are shipped fresh, doubtless more are salted. The 

 leading salt mullet shipper estimates that 20,000 barrels are shipped annually from Beaufort 

 and Morehead City. The process of preparing the salt mullets is simple. The fish are split 

 along the back, cleaned, salted, and placed in a large barrel for 24 hours or more. They are 

 then taken out, allowed to drain, and repacked in a fish barrel; brine is poured over them and 

 a quart of Turks Island salt placed on top. When closed the barrel is ready for shipment. 

 Mullet roe, obtained in the fall (October) is much valued locally, and is shipped to some 

 extent. Charleston, S. C, offers a good market. Some years ago an attemjat was made at 

 Beaufort to can the very small mullets. The fish did not sell, probably partly because it was 

 an innovation, partly because of the method of canning. While it may be that with proper 

 method a good canned product could be made, it does not seem expedient to can the young 

 of such an important fish, imless a very good selling product is made. 



Along with the jumping mullet occurs the "silverside mullet", but it is not relatively 

 abundant. The local "fork-tail mullet", or "maiden mullet", is probably not a distinct 

 species but a name applied to the medium-sized mullets taken later in the season. The little 

 mullets appearing in October in large schools are supposed to come from Virginia and are 

 sometimes called the "Virginia fleet". 



The mullet is valued next to shrimp as bait in hook-and-line fishing, and its indirect 

 value as a food and bait in nature for other fish must be counted; it is preyed upon by trout, 

 blue-fish, and mackerel, and therefore attracts these less abimdant and higher-priced fish. 



