reasons for the change were the lower cost of equipment and re- 

 duced need for manpower per unit volume of fish caught. 



The Dare and Hyde County Fisheries 



Dare and Hyde Counties account for 65 percent of the total 

 landings of fish in the Albemarle Region (14.4 million pounds), 

 and they harbor 56 percent of the total number of fishing boats 

 in the Albemarle region. These two counties have a larger number 

 of boats over 30 feet in length which are capable of fishing in 

 the outer sound areas and the Atlantic Ocean. (See the following 

 table ) . 



TABLE 3. LICENSED COMMERCIAL FISHING BOATS 

 ALBEMARLE AREA - 1964 



Length and Number 

 Below 20' 20-29' 30-39' 40-49' Above 50' Total Boats 



561 

 266 



Eighty-two percent of the boats in the two counties are shorter 

 than 30 feet, and it is assumed that they are fishing exclusively 

 in the sound areas. They fish mostly for shrimp, crabs, clams, 

 scallops and food fish. 



Hyde County is almost entirely a shellfish county. In 1964 

 it had a landing of approximately 7,665 lbs. of miscellaneous food 

 fish, and a landing of approximately 1.7 million pounds of shell- 

 fish. Hard shell blue crabs amounted to approximately 1.3 million 

 pounds of the shellfish; the remainder was divided between shrimp 

 and oysters. The shrimping operation provides the small poundage 

 of food fish landed in Hyde County since they are a by-product of 

 the shrimping catch. Most of Hyde's shrimping catch is landed at 

 Engelhard and New Holland; a small amount is landed at Ocracoke 

 and Swan Quarter. 



II 



