Everything from the bottom is brought up by conveyor belt. At the upper end of the conveyor belt a person picks off the clams that are marketable and everything else goes back into the Bay. Clam dredges are so effective that they can be used only in designated areas of the Bay. Eels Harvested originally to serve merely as bait for catching crabs, today eels are caught and sent to Japan and Europe where they are considered a delicacy. Using a design similar to a crab pot, eel traps are long and cylindrical with an interior funnel.
Eels swim in, but are unable to get back out.
Native Americans and early colonists first made eel pots out of willow branches before they began weaving them from white oak splints. By the 1930s most watermen switched to wire pots. In the rivers of the Bay, watermen set pound nets, gill nets, and fyke nets to harvest fish. A steady decline in the amount and number of species caught has led to restrictions on commercial fishing of shad and striped bass. Pound nets are set up with stakes in the Bay.