FISHERIES OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES. 
287 
THE FISHERIES CONSIDERED BY COUNTIES. 
There are seventeen counties in North Carolina having frontage on the ocean or 
on the sounds tributary thereto, all of which maintain more or less important fisheries. 
These in their geographical order, beginning at the north, are Currituck, Camden, 
Pasquotank, Perquimans, Chowan, Bertie, Washington, Tyrrell, Dare, Hyde, Pamlico, 
Craven, Carteret, Onslow, Pender, New Hanover, and Brunswick. There are also nine 
additional counties situated at some distances from the coast and abutting on rivers 
in which commercial fishing is prosecuted. These are Gates and Hertford counties, 
on the Chowan River; Martin County, on the Roanoke River; Beaufort, Pitt, and 
Edgecombe counties, on Tar River and its termination, the Pamlico ; Lenoir County, 
on the Neuse River; and Duplin and Sampson counties, on the Cape Fear River. 
In the following tables the fisheries in each of these counties are shown in detail. 
The four tables relate, respectively, to the persons employed, the apparatus, boats, 
etc., used ; the quantity and value of products taken in the shore or boat fisheries, 
and the results of the vessel fisheries. 
In the first table special attention should be directed (1) to the large number of 
fishery employes in Dare, Carteret, Pamlico, and Craven counties; and (2) to the 
marked increase in 1890 over 1889 in the number of shoresmen in Pasquotank and 
Beaufort counties, owing to the establishment of oyster canning and packing houses. 
The precedence which Dare County exercises in the number of persons employed 
is naturally maintained in the matter of capital invested, as shown in the second 
table. The principal items of this county are boats and gill nets, while in Carteret 
County, which ranks second in the amount of capital devoted to the industry, the 
value of the vessels exceeds any other single element of expense; and in Pasquotank 
County, which ranks third, the chief investment is in slioi'e property and working 
capital. Chowan County leads in the value of the seines and pound nets, the number 
of the latter being greater than in all the other counties combined. 
The value of the products of the shore fisheries of Dare County in 1890 was over 
$90,000 more than that of the next important county, viz, Carteret, and over $150,000 
more than that of Chowan County, which ranks third. Shad and oysters are the two 
principal products of Dare County, the former being more valuable than all the other 
species combined, and both being taken in larger quantities than in any other county. 
The objects of capture which give prominence to the fisheries of Carteret County are 
oysters, mullet, and squeteague. In the yield of oysters the county ranks next to 
„Dare County, and in that of the two last named it takes first place. Chowan County 
is notable for its catch of alewives, in which it is the leading county of the State, 
while the yield of shad is also large, ranking next to Dare County. Many other inter- 
esting-details of the fisheries in the different couuties are disclosed by the third table. 
A prominent feature of the fishing industry in North Carolina is the relatively and 
actually unimportant nature of the vessel fisheries, a condition which contrasts very 
strongly with most of the other important fishing States. The vessel fisheries exist 
only in Craven and Carteret counties, and may be said to be restricted to the taking 
of oysters and menhaden, although in Carteret County a few bluefish, mullet, Spanish 
mackerel, and squeteague are sometimes caught. The configuration of the shores and 
the abundance of fish in the inshore waters have, up to the present time, precluded 
the necessity for engaging in the offshore vessel fisheries, except for menhaden. When 
the emergency arises or the occasion requires, the pelagic waters contiguous to the 
North Carolina coast will no doubt yield satisfactory results. 
