608 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
much inferior to those at Sandy Hook, being valued at only about $90 each. They were intro- 
duced here about 1870. On account of the difficulty of finding a market for their catch they stock 
on an average only about $400 a season. 
The fishing season about Sandy Hook extends from May to November if the weather permits, 
and in Delaware Bay from March 1 to the middle of June. 
The chief varieties of fish taken are weakfish, or squeteague, Spanish mackerel, butterfish, 
bluefish, sheepshead, bonitos, and shad. In Delaware Bay, as I bave just stated, great quantities 
of king-crabs are caught. 
The financial arrangements present no especial peculiarities. The products of the nets go 
mainly to New York and Philadelphia. The prices are frequently so low that the fishermen cannot 
dispose of the fish to any advantage, and often let them loose in the water. This is more espe- 
cially the case southward. 
The number of nets in use in the State in 1880 was twenty-seven, valued at $19,800. 
Regarding the introduction of pound-fisheries into New Jersey, Mr. Earll says that the first 
pounds fished there were very small, and were placed along the inner shore of Sandy Hook. The 
same style of pounds were fished until about 1873, when larger ones were placed along the ocean 
shore, and their importance in connection with the Spanish mackerel fishery was then discovered. 
The majority of the mackerel secured about Sandy Hook are now taken in this way. One hundred 
fish in number was considered an average daily catch for the fishing season of 1879, and 100 to 
140 for 1880, though much larger catches were occasionally secured. The best day’s fishing for 
a pound-net in that locality occurred in the summer of 1879 when Mr. Robert Potter took 3,500 
pounds, valued at $700, at a single lift. 
11. POUND-NET FISHERIES OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY. 
Between New Jersey and Ohesapeake Bay there are no pound-net fisheries. In the latter 
locality the fishery has been engaged in since 1858, having been introduced from New Jersey in 
that year. Mr. Earll, in his account of the Spanish mackerel fisheries on a preceding page, says 
that the pound-net was introduced into the Chesapeake against the prejudice of the fishermen, but 
lras revolutionized the fisheries of Virginia. Prior to 1870 the fisheries of the region were of little 
importance, being carried on with hand-lines and drag-seines for afew weeks in the spring and fall, 
while to-day the Chesapeake is the center of one of the most important shore fisheries in the United 
States. The pound-net has not only more than doubled the catch of ordinary fishes, but it has 
brought to the notice of the fishermen many valuable species that were previously almost unknown 
to them. In 1880, 162 pottnds were fished in Virginia waters, with two others located at Crisfield, 
Maryland, just above the Virginia line. : 
In general make-up the net employed in Chesapeake Bay corresponds closely to that in use in 
Vineyard Sound. Each costs about $1,000, a second set of netting being used when the first is taken 
out to be dried and repaired. In the warm waters of this region the netting cannot remain down 
more than two or three weeks without being seriously injured. 
The hauling of the pounds is carried on by three or four men from a boat. When there is a 
large run of “scrap fish,” or when the catch is large, a signal is given and a flat boat or scow is 
sent out from the shore to receive the surplus. It is taken to the point on the outside of the net, 
and the worthless fish are thrown into it as fast as the marketable ones are sorted out. Frequently 
both boats are loaded and the fish are culled after reaching the shore. 
