There, they removed their flippers and 

 dorsal fins, stripped and cut the skin 

 and blubber into pieces, and distilled 

 their oil by fire. Each dolphin yielded 

 on average 6 to 8 gallons of oil, which 

 was sold as an illuminant or lubricant. 



From that time until 1860, only a 

 few dolphin crews operated between 

 Hatteras and Swansboro during the 

 winter. The dolphin industry did not 



through ocean surf. From these boats, 

 they wielded several 18-inch mesh nets 

 100 to 200 yards long and at least two 

 finer-meshed sweep seines. 



When the lookouts signaled that a 

 dolphin pod was approaching, the 

 hunters took to the sea. Circling the 

 pod, the watermen surrounded the 

 dolphins with several mesh nets. "The 

 schools thus entrapped frequently 



A 



JL JL. coastal blessing — 



a pod of dolphins skimming the wave 



tops along the Tar Heel coast. 



really boom until later. By the 1880s, 

 thousands of dolphins were caught 

 annually. When a biologist named 

 Frederick W. True visited the dolphin 

 fishery at Hatteras, he found the beach 

 piled high with "skulls and fragmentary 

 skeletons." 



In an 1885 edition of the Bulletin 

 of the United States Fish Commission, 

 True describes both the capture and 

 processing of dolphins. First, the 

 dolphin hunters erected signal poles on 

 the ocean beach a few miles on both 

 sides of their camp. Then, they readied 

 from four to six "pilot boats" — sleek, 

 double-ended craft designed to dash 



consist of 200 to 300 individuals, the 

 power of which is so great that if they 

 should rush violently against any part 

 of the net it would immediately break," 

 True writes. 



Instead of hauling the nets ashore, 

 the watermen used them to confine the 

 dolphins while other men used the 

 sweep-seines to capture 30 or 40 of the 

 mammals at a time. The process 

 sometimes took hours. Yet, True 

 observes, "very few individuals 

 escape, and these mostly by leaping 

 over the nets." 



When True visited the Hatteras 

 fishery, the dolphin oil was sold to 



22 HOLIDAY 1997 



