520 REPORT OF C0MMIS8I0NER OF FISH AND FISH?:RIES. 



jiloiio- the beach to Cape Heiir}' and in the Chesapeake Bay and 

 Potomac River, as well as on the eastern shore of Virginia in Accomac 

 and Northampton counties. Pound nets are set in the early spring 

 as soon as the weather will pei-niit, ])ut most of them are taken up 

 when the run of shad is passed. A few are again fished for a short 

 time in the fall, and others are fished all the season from March to 

 Novem])er, the length of seasons depending on weather conditions. 

 Much time and property are often lost from unfavoraljle weather. 

 Haul seines are used during the same time mentioned for pound nets. 

 These are worked by hand, horses, and in a few cases by steam. 



The several navigable streams, including the Nansemond, James, 

 York, Rappahaimock, and Potomac rivers, with their numerous 

 branches, creeks, and bays, are nearly all fished, more or less, for shad, 

 and but very little except during the shad season. For a long time 

 the rivers have no doubt been overfished, being lined with stake gill 

 nets, haul seines, and a few other appliances of capture. So few of 

 the local species remain that it does not pay the fishermen to follow 

 the business after the run of shad is over. Citizens living along the 

 upper tide waters now report very few, if any, shad seen in these 

 waters, which formerly were so plentifully supplied with them. The 

 same conditions obtain as to alewives and all other migratory fish. 



It has been noted that the fishery products of Virginia for 1901 

 show quite an increase over those of 1897. This may be partly 

 accounted for by an increased quantity of fishing apparatus in the 

 waters of Chesapeake Bay and the near shore waters of the Atlantic 

 Ocean. The number of pound nets increases every your, and they are 

 placed farther from shore in deeper water. 



While the river fisheries have to a large extent become exhausted, 

 or at least unprofitable, their place has been filled by the planting of 

 o\'sters on private beds. A large portion of the beds of the rivers 

 before mentioned are now leased from the State and planted with 

 03'sters as far up as the waters are at all suitable. Much of this 

 oyster ground was never known to have had an oyster on it, while 

 other sections were abandoned 03'ster beds. Nearly all of these 

 private oyster beds have proved financialh' successful, except when 

 excessive rains have freshened the water and covered the oyster beds 

 with silt, killing thousands of bushels of oysters. The two eastern 

 counties of Virginia — Northampton and Accomac— have almost con- 

 tinuous shore lines of fishing-grounds in the waters of Chesapeake Bay 

 and the Atlantic Ocean. The representative catches of this district 

 embrace menhaden, blue-fish, alewives, crabs, and oysters, with smaller 

 quantities of several other species. 



The three tables which follow show the number of persons employed, 

 the number and value of vessels, boats, and apparatus of capture, the 

 value of shore and accessory property, the amount of cash capital, and 

 the cjuantity and value of products in the fisheries of Virginia in 1901. 



