274 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
are mucli more abundant than in those sections. The yield is at present much less 
than the resources would warrant, and is largely limited by the demand. Crabs 
are abundant in the salt and brackish water of the region, but no very important 
fishery is prosecuted for them. The common blue crab ( Callinectes hastatus), which 
is called “channel crab” at some places in North Carolina and “ sea crab” in the 
other States, abounds along the coast and is the principal species taken for food 
and bait. The stone crab (Menippe mercenaria ), the only other species of crab having 
economic value, is larger, less abundant, and more highly esteemed as food than the 
blue crab; it is found from North Carolina to Florida. 
IMPORTANCE AND CHARACTER OF THE FISHERIES. 
Considered in the aggregate, the fisheries of this region are less extensive and 
important than those of any other section of the United States. The amount of 
capital invested, the quantity of products taken, and the value of the yield are all 
less than in the next important fishing region — the Gulf States. In the number of 
persons engaged in the industry, however, the South Atlantic States take precedence 
over the Gulf and Pacific States. The explanation of the apparent disproportion 
between the investment and yield on one hand and the personnel on the other lies 
in the fact that there is an unusually large semi-professional element in the river 
fisheries, where the apparatus is of an inexpensive nature and the catch is small. 
The most important fisheries of this region are those for shad, oysters, alewives, 
mullets, black bass, bluefisli, striped bass, squeteague, sea bass, and shrimp, the value 
of each of which is from $25,000 to $482,400, the aggregate value of these ten items 
being $4,266,903, or about four-fifths of the total yield of the fisheries of the region. 
The specially prominent species are shad, oyster, alewives, and mullets; of these, it is 
only in the alewife fishery that this section surpasses all others, but among minor 
branches the black-bass, porpoise, and sucker fisheries also rank first on the Atlantic 
seaboard. Of the individual coastal States, North Carolina leads in the value of the 
alewife, black-bass, and porpoise fisheries, which are among those in which the region 
as a whole takes precedence. 
One of the most prominent features of tlie fisheries of the South Atlantic States 
is the comparative unimportance of the vessel fishery. Fewer vessels are employed 
than in any other coast section, and their use is almost restricted to the oyster fishery; 
although in North Carolina there is a small fleet engaged in the menhaden fishery, 
and in this State and in South Carolina and Georgia vessels are sparingly used in the 
turtle, terrapin, and hand-line fisheries. The abundance of fish in the river and the 
shore waters has, up to this time, precluded the necessity of resorting to the offshore 
fishing-grounds where the use of vessels is required. 
Numerous forms of apparatus are employed in the South Atlantic fisheries, some 
of which are used in large quantities and some only sparingly. The principal kinds 
are set or stake gill nets and drift gill nets, haul seines, sweep seines, purse seines, 
pound nets, weirs, fyke nets, cast nets, skim nets, dip nets, and lines, employed in the 
capture of fish ; seines in the taking of porpoises, shrimps, terrapins, turtles, and crabs ; 
cast nets for shrimps; lines for crabs, and tongs for oysters, clams, and scallops. Fish 
wheels and wooden traps were also at one time somewhat extensively employed in the 
head waters of some of the rivers, but these are now of little commercial importance. 
