190 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



return is made to the first net, and each being lifted in its proper 

 order the catch is carried to the vessel iu waiting. The number of nets 

 fished was 49, and the aggregate catch amounted to 416,258 pounds, 

 with a value to the fishermen of $10,845. The vessels remain out for 

 a week at a trip, the fishery covering a period of 8 to 10 mouths. 



The purse seine is used in four counties, Carteret, Currituck, Dare, 

 and Pasquotank. The total catch was 9,981 ,900 pounds, worth $21,886, 

 and was composed of menhaden, striped bass, and squeteague. Men- 

 haden comprise by far the greater portion, the catch being 9,930,000 

 pounds, valued at $17,400. They are taken only in Carteret County. 

 In the other three counties striped bass and squeteague only are taken. 

 The latter fishery is carried on in Albemarle Sound during the autumn 

 months, and is of comparatively recent date. 



A vessel fishery for oysters is carried on in Beaufort, Carteret, and 

 Dare counties. The catch was 978,026 pounds, valued at $33,607, of 

 which Carteret County furnished 843,675 pounds, valued at $29,029. 

 The fishery in Dare County is conducted from Avon, and was inaugu- 

 rated in 1892. 



SHORE FISHERIES. 



A glance at the tables shows that seines took by far the largest 

 quantity of fish. They caught 16,248,447 pounds of fish, valued at 

 $318,169. The fish secured in largest quantities are alewives, amount- 

 ing to 5,864,348 pounds, valued at $55,153. The mullet and shad are 

 each more valuable than the alewife, although the latter far exceeds 

 them in quantity. 2,295,400 pounds of mullet, valued at $62,574, and 

 1,507,242 pounds of shad, valued at $60,235, were secured. The other 

 prominent species of which more were secured in seines than in any 

 of the other forms of apparatus were menhaden, black bass, perch, 

 and spots. 



The seine fisheries of Albemarle Sound section are the most important 

 in the State. The seines, which are used for shad mainly, are among 

 the largest employed iu the United States. In Carteret County seines 

 took 3,587,276 pounds, valued at $54,860. Craven County is next in 

 this respect, the seine yield being worth $43,397, followed by Currituck, 

 Bertie, Onslow, and Chowan counties, in the order named. 



In Currituck Sound a peculiar form of seine is used. The net is knit 

 like a small-meshed gill net and is about 150 yards long. At intervals 

 of 3 or 4 yards oaken poles are run from the upper rope to the lower 

 one and secured in this position. When in use a stake is driven into 

 the muddy bottom and one end of the net secured to it. The boat is 

 then rowed away from the stake, the net being paid out. When it is 

 all out the boat is rowed about half of the arc of a circle around the 

 stake and is then rowed in to the stake, when the net is hauled in. The 

 net bags a little between the stakes and thus forms a pocket into which 

 the fish go, and from which they are carefully lifted out of the water and 

 dumped into the boat. The crosspieces of wood are used to prevent the 



