220 REPORT OP COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



400 to 1,700 per boat, the total yield numbering 12,020 roe shad aud 

 10,710 bucks, for which the fishermen received $2,235. 



Haul seines are used only in the extreme upper limits of the river, 

 above the Maryland border line. From that point to 2 miles above 

 Seaford there are 10 seines, measuring from 125 to 200 yards in length, 

 20 to 30 feet in depth, with 1\ to 2£ inch mesh. Five men are required 

 at each fishery, and the beaches rent usually for about $15 annually. 

 The season extends from the second week of March to the second or 

 third week of May, and the catch by each seine usually ranges from 

 200 to 3,000 shad. The aggregate catch by the 10 seiues in 1896 was 

 8,702 roe shad and 11,090 bucks, valued locally at $1,803. 



Broad Greek. — This creek is a branch of Nanticoke River, joining that 

 stream a short distance above the Maryland line. It penetrates the 

 swamps of southern Delaware, and is navigable a distance of 8 miles, 

 to Laurel. Its shad fisheries are of local importance only, the annual 

 yield approximating 10,000, obtained by means of drift nets and seines 

 which differ in no particular from those used on the upper portion of 

 the Nanticoke. In 1896 there were 11 drift-net boats and two seining 

 crews, and the catch aggregated 9,635 shad, of which 6,710 were obtained 

 by drift nets and 2,925 by seines. 



DELAWARE BAY AND RIVER. 



The shad fisheries prosecuted in Delaware Bay by residents of the 

 State of Delaware are very much less extensive than those carried on 

 by citizens of New Jersey, and the same statement is applicable to 

 Delaware River, although the difference in the latter is not so great. 

 The residents of the two States fish generally on the same grounds, 

 with similar forms of apparatus, depend on the same markets, aud 

 their interests are identical in nearly every particular. It is therefore 

 most convenient to describe the fisheries of the two States in the same 

 chapter, and as those prosecuted from the New Jersey shore are by far 

 the most important the fisheries of both the bay aud river will be 

 described in the chapter relating to that State. It will suffice to state 

 in this connectiou that in 1896 47,520 shad were taken in Delaware Bay 

 and 280,869 in Delaware River by residents of Delaware, the value 

 aggregating $47,797. 



The principal fishing centers on the river are Newcastle, Delaware 

 City, Wilmington, and Port Penn, while on the bay the principal cen- 

 ters are Bombay Hook and Bowers Beach. 



There are a number of small streams tributary to Delaware Bay and 

 situated entirely within this State which yield a number of shad each 

 year, the most important being Broadkiln, Mispillion, Murderkill, St. 

 Jones, Leipsic, Duck, Appoquinimink, and Christiana creeks. They all 

 rise in the central and western part of Delaware aud flow in a general 

 easterly direction to their entrance into the bay. They are short, the 

 longest barely exceeding 25 miles, and are tidal nearly to their source. 

 The fisheries of each will be briefly uoted. 



