296 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
than that of the ale wives. The other prominent fish taken in seines are bluefisli, 
mullet, squeteague, black bass, and spots, more of which are caught in seines than in 
any other form of apparatus. 
The seine fisheries of the Albemarle section are more important than those of any 
other part of the State, and it is probable that the number of large shad seines there 
operated is greater than elsewhere in the United States. The counties bordering on 
the sound and its tributaries which maintain the most valuable seine fisheries are 
Chowan and Bertie. In that portion of Dare County bordering on Croatan Sound 
there are also important seine fisheries. In Pamlico Sound, Beaufort and Craven 
counties have valuable fisheries of this kind. Carteret County leads all others in the 
value of its seine fisheries, the sales of fish in 1890 amounting to $86,195; Dare, the 
next important county, followed with $52,111, after which came Bertie, Chowan, 
Craven, Currituck, Onslow, and Beaufort counties. 
Next to the seine the pound net is tb e most productive means of capture, although 
the value of the catch is less than that of the gill nets. In 1889, 7,066,611 pounds of 
fish, valued at $111,877, were taken, and in 1890, 8,282,562 pounds, worth $123,606. 
By far the most important fish captured are the alewives, of which 6,073,160 pounds 
were secured in 1889, and 7,189,424 pounds in 1890. The next fish in point of value 
are shad, striped bass, and perch. 
Few changes in the fisheries of the State during the past decade have been more 
remarkable than the large increase in the number of pound nets. In 1880 only 117 
such nets were set iu the State, while in 1890 there were 950. The pound nets are 
most numerous in the Albemarle region, but are also employed in the other sounds 
and the rivers emptying into them. This form of net was introduced into Albemarle 
Sound in 1870, since which time it has exerted a marked influence on the development 
of the fisheries by supplanting to a greater or less extent the older types of apparatus 
because of its greater cheapness and efficiency. 
Gill nets take somewhat smaller quantities of fish than pound nets, but the catch 
has a greater value, owing chiefly to the large numbers of shad secured, which have a 
relatively high valuation. Considerably more than half the shad credited to the State 
are taken in gill nets, the catch in 1890 being 3,348,577 pounds, valued at $175,388. 
The yield of mullet and squeteague is also an important item in the gill-net fishery, 
the value of the former in 1890 being $27,054 and of the latter $16,186. No other spe- 
cies require special mention. Gill nets are most numerous in Dare County, in which 
the gill-net catch is far more valuable than in all the remaining counties combined, 
this prominence being due to the enormous quantities of shad taken. Carteret and 
Onslow counties.rank next in importance, the principal part of the catch being marine 
species. 
Of the remaining forms of apparatus used in the capture of fish, lines are the 
most prominent, although when compared with seines, pound nets, and gill nets they 
are insignificant. Line fishing on a commercial basis is followed only in Onslow, New 
Hanover, and Sampson counties, and the quantities of fish taken are small. The 
aggregate catch in 1890 was 380,375 pounds, having a value of $13,003, the principal 
species being hogfish and squeteague. 
Skim nets are used in greatest numbers on the Boanoke and Tar rivers in the 
capture of shad and alewives. In 1890 247,148 pounds of fish, worth $10,581, were 
taken by this means. Eel pots are sparingly employed in four counties — Currituck, 
