TOP: Hightower displays a 30-pound 

 flathead catfish, an introduced 

 nuisance species. 



BOTTOM: Farmer is poised to catch fish 

 stunned by the electrofishing device. 



The dam had been preventing shad and 

 striped bass from reaching an area more 

 conducive to successful spawning. 



Past and Future 



Every year, the small town of Grifton, 

 on a tributary of the Neuse, celebrates a shad 

 festival. While the celebrated fish is the 

 smaller, bonier hickory shad, the festival 

 hints at the importance of shad in North 

 Carolina. 



In The Waterman 's Song, a history of 

 black watermen in North Carolina, David 

 Cecelski writes: "The largest fishery for 

 plantation slaves lay on the lower Neuse, 

 along the estuarine waters between New Bern 

 and the Pamlico Sound. There shad fishing 

 was a spring ritual for thousands of plantation 

 slaves. . . .Dragnetting for shad, small gangs 

 of slave fishermen moved up and down the 

 Neuse, often staying in shoreside camps at 

 night." 



Few large commercial fisheries existed 

 before the Civil War, but all that changed 

 afterward — much to the detriment of the 

 American shad. "In the later 1800s, they were 

 just hammering these populations," 

 Hightower says. 



For striped bass, populations plunged 

 through the 1970s and 1980s, resulting in 

 strict harvest regulations. Many of these 

 populations have recovered, Hightower says, 

 although numbers on the Neuse remain low. 



While more spawning areas are 

 available for anadromous fishes, it will take 

 time for their populations to grow. American 

 shad leave the river when they are about six 

 inches long and come back when they are 

 sexually mature. "1999 was the first year the 

 dam was removed," Hightower says. "That 

 class (the first generation from the restored 

 area) wouldn't come back for four or five years." 



And just opening up river area does not 

 ensure repopulation of these species. Much 

 has changed since the antebellum days when, 

 as Cecelski writes, "a good shad season could 

 supply ample food and fertilizer for the entire 

 year." 



Development along the Neuse has 

 brought increased demand for water above 

 the fall line, while an ongoing drought has 

 reduced the flow levels conducive to fish 

 migration. 



Predators in the Neuse have changed as 

 well. Among the catch of Waters and Farmer 

 that spring day was a monster — a 30-pound 

 flathead catfish, an introduced nuisance species 

 that, from the looks of it, may be the top of 

 the food chain in this stretch of the Neuse. 



Still, the problem of habitat quality is 

 moot without habitat access. 



Because the Quaker Neck Dam was in 

 place for over 50 years, it's difficult to 

 compare pre- and post-dam populations of 

 fishes or to definitively point to cause-and- 

 effect in declines in fish abundances, 

 Hightower says. 



Hightower gives as an example of 

 effects of dams on anadromous fishes in the 

 Susquehanna, a northeastern river that flows 

 to the head of the Chesapeake Bay. When a 

 dam was built 10 miles from the mouth of the 

 river, "there was a complete collapse of the 

 population," he says. 



"With the Quaker Neck, it's not so 

 clear-cut, but the fact that the fish are moving 

 upstream to spawn makes us think (the dam 

 removal) is going to be advantageous," he says. 



"In 1997 to 1998 — the year the gates 

 had been pulled but before the dam was 

 removed — there was high water and the 

 dam was completely submerged. Shad and 

 striped bass made it all the way to Milburnie. 

 That showed that fish would take advantage 

 of this newly available habitat," Hightower 

 says. Milburnie Dam is just below Raleigh, 

 and is the next upstream impediment to 

 migratory fishes on the Neuse. 



"It is energetically expensive for these 

 fish to swim upriver. If they're willing to 

 swim all the way to Raleigh, there must be 

 some kind of population benefit." 



Now, with many miles of river reopened 

 to migration, the energy expended by these 

 migratory fishes may prove worth the effort. □ 



16 HIGH SEASON 2002 



