Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-01-17
FISH NDOYSTER NOTES.

The value of the New Jersey output
of oysters last year was SO, 600. 600.
Senator Minch believes it would not
have reached 500, 600 if the state was
not fostering the industry.
The Supreme Court has decided in
favor of the State of Ohio in fifteen
cases Carried some years ago to that
court by fishermen who contended that
the State authorities had no right under
the constitution to take up and confis-
cate nets for violation of law.
The catch, north and south, show q
great falling off in the menhaden in
dustry for 1907. A decrease of so per
cent in oil and 80 per cent in guano is
the record. Only the Chesapeake bay
fisheries were anywhere near the aver
age mark. Severe losses were suffered
by the others.
VIM. b. Slant, of dredger Jack
Powhatan, Of Norfolk, was on Mon
day indicted at Suffolk by the Nanse-
mond grand jury for illegally dredging
oysters and put under ST. 500 bonds to
appear for trial at Suffolk January
3lst. Slant was captured in Hampton
Roads the night of December 10Th last
by police steamer Commodore Maurv.
Fishermen along the Chesapeake are
busy arranging for the opening of the
fishing season of 1908. The first catch
will begin early in February, when the
herring begin to run. This will be fol-
lowed by the shad season which will
open between the middle of February
and the first of March. The open win
ter may bring the runs on little ear
lier than usual.
The State Board of Fisheries carried
out the order ofsthe former Board and
sent the Commodore Maury to Nanse-
mond river last week to pull the stakes
from the grounds of Jones and others
who had staked in natural rock and
were given two years in which to re-
move the oysters. About fifty tongers
acknowledgement upon the grounds TO
work. Some twenty warrants were
sworn out against the tongers for tres
pass by Jones ct ais and the cases will
be heard at Suffolk January 25th.
New England was once the centre
of the oyster industry of this country.
Later New York and New Jersey took
the lead, while today the Chesapeake
bay region is the heart of the oyster
industry. The Carolinas are making
great strides and hope that the Seen
tire" will soon be in their midst, but
should it ever leave the Chesapeake it
is probable the Gulf will appropriate
the honor. Virginia must now hustle to
keep Louisiana from snatching the
palm.
The scarcity and poor quality of seed
oysters combined with the low prices
being received by the packers at pres
ent make it impossible to anymore
than pay expenses and some plants are
being operated at loss in order to
keep them open, in the hope that the
price will go up. The law of sup
ply and demand will eventually raise
the selling price, of course, but in the
meantime the FISHERMAN who has only
limited capital behind his business is
finding it strenuous undertaking to
make both ends meet. The Oysterman.
At meeting in Guinea" of over
two hundred Gloucester county fisher
men and oystermen, the views of the
Chairman of our State Board of Fish
cries, who had just addressed them,
were unanimously endorsed. Among
other things the fishermen agreed to a
fish Gull law and promised no further
resistance to paying the license tax.
The oystermen favored a strict enforce
ment of the law. Practically the same
results were met with at Mathews
c. H. meeting the day following.
though the attendance was small owing
to severe rain storm.
One of the greatest foes to the oyster
industry North is the starfish, which fire.
quently covers large areas of the sea
bottom to depth of eighteen to twenty
inches, sometimes blanketing entire
beds of oysters. The stars are very
hard to destroy. but it has been dis
covered that their steady advance can
be checked with lime. The lime is
placed in paper bags and dropped along
the boundary of the oyster bed. A paper
bag causes it to descend through the
water, and beyond the lime barrier thus
formed not starfish will pass. The
lime also aids the oyster in shell building.
The dogfsh, which exists in Atlantic
waters by the million and which has
always been discarded by fishermen.
is now pronounced food. The souid,
which has always been considered use
less, has also been recently pronounced
| edible. Now the black mussel. which
abounds in millions along the coast, is
found to be an edible luxury. On Cape
Cod many fishermen are experimenting
on their own hook, and thousands of
jars of mussels are being put up BY
housekeepers for commercial use
Both the clam and the quahaug are
said to be much scarcer than ever be-
fore, and fishermen declare that at the
present rate of their capture will near
the point of extinction in less than a score
of years. On the other hand the NUM-
Der of mussels is said to be almost I'M
limited.
From May to September, says the
Maryland shell fish commission, eggs