FISHERIES OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES. 
275 
In the ocean and general salt-water fisheries lines are the principal means of 
capture; the largest quantities of sea bass, whiting, sheepshead, squeteague, channel 
bass, drum, etc., are thus taken. In the waters of the sounds, bays, and lower courses 
of the rivers, gill nets and seiues are the predominant types in the capture of shad, 
alewives, black bass, mullet, bluefisli, channel bass, and sturgeon; in North Carolina 
pound nets are also important in taking alewives, shad, and striped bass. In the 
upper parts of the rivers skim nets, dip nets, and small gill nets are the characteristic 
apparatus, and the principal fish caught are shad, alewives, and suckers. 
A consideration of the forms of apparatus employed in the food-fish fisheries of 
the South Atlantic States shows that the use of seines and gill nets is so much more 
extensive than that of any other form, except in North Carolina, that all other appa- 
ratus is unimportant by comparison, and that some types which in other regions con- 
stitute a very prominent means of capture are entirely absent or only sparingly used 
in the greater part of the South Atlantic region. The pound net, for instance, is found 
practically only in one State, and the fyke net is employed only in very small numbers 
and in isolated localities. The possibility of introducing new forms which will develop 
the fishing resources, increase the income of the fishermen, and at the same time 
mitigate their labors, seems worthy of serious attention. Both the pound and fyke 
nets are adapted to the capture of almost every species of marine, fresh-water, and 
anadromous fish occurring in the region, and the topography of the shores is 
extremely favorable to their employment. Their inexpensiveness, as compared 
with seines, recommends them, and the possibility of employing them in connection 
with seine, gill-net, and other fisheries without special increase in the working force 
is an important consideration. 
A conspicuous instance of the advantage which may come to a locality through 
the use of improved means of capture is seen in the Albemarle region of North Caro- 
lina, where, within a comparatively few years, the pound net by its introduction and 
extensive operation in the shad, alewife, striped bass, and other fisheries is displacing 
the more expensive and less effectual apparatus, and the wonderful resources of the 
waters of the section are more fully demonstrated and utilized than ever before. 
The introduction of modern improved apparatus should not be undertaken with- 
out a due consideration of the limitations in its use and without the enaction by legis- 
latures of provisions for the proper protection of the fish sought to be caught. Such 
forms as the pound net and fyke net can, in most localities, be regarded as legitimate 
means of capture whose proper use will result in no appreciable diminution in the 
abundauce of the fish caught; but when no restrictions are placed on the number that 
may be set in a given river, bay, or estuary, the season for their operation, the size of 
the mesh in leader and bowl, and their position with reference to the interference with 
the movements of anadromous or other migrating fish on their way to the spawning - 
grouuds, they are capable of doing vast injury, which years of artificial stocking may 
not effectually overcome. In some of the States to the north a serious decline in the 
catch of shad and other fish in certain rivers may be directly traced to the reckless 
setting of pound nets at the mouths of rivers in such numbers or such position that 
practically the entire body of migrating fish is caught before the process of reproduc- 
tion supervenes. 
