The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1921-07-22
MAY REVOLUTIONIZE FISHING
INDUSTRY In NORTH CAROLINA
State Fisheries Commission Board Lifts Ban on
Ocean Pound Net Fishing In Face of
Terroristic Opposition
By w. o. SAUNDERS.

Carolina Coast for, years unmo-
Tested save by small fishermen
employing hooks and lines, gill
nets and small hand seines. TIC
the North and the South of us
fishermen have been taking these
edible fish in purse seines and
pound nets and North >Carolin-
iaf1s have regularly purchased
fish taken in pound nets on the
Virginia Coast. And now, by an
order promulgated by the North
Carolina Fisheries Commission
Board at Morehead City last
week, North Carolina fishermen
are going to be permitted to take
ocean food fish with pound nets,
within certain prescribed limits,
and the fishing industry Of North
Carolina is in a way to be revo-
1utionized over night.
he new tiIOplNo W lAiC ASAA
cries Commission Board is known as
Rule No. y and relates: ut shall be
lawful to set pound nets of not less than
one and three-eighths inch bar in the
ocean between Beaufort Inlet and Bogus
Inlet, not nearer to either of said inlets
than four miles, Or nearer the beach
than 400 yards; provided that the bot
tom and ten meshes of the lower walls
of the bowls or pounds of said nets
shall be of not less than one and one
half inch bar when used
The order was passed in the face of
a protest from more than a thousand
fishermen in Carteret, Jones and Onslow
counties who declare that they will be
ruined .if pound nets are permitted in
the Atlantic Ocean. And thereby hangs
an interesting story.
1t probably will surprise the average
North Carofinian to be told that pound
nets have been prohibited on the North
Carolina coast There are more than
1000 pound nets operated in the inland
waters of the state in the shad and her
ring fishing industry, but no one has
dared set a pound net in the ocean.
And the only reason is that pound nets
take fish in enormous quantities and
lower the market price. To keep the
price of fish up, to doubtfully benefit
hundreds of small fishermen, the n. Z.
Fisheries Commission Board has hesi-
tated to permit pound net fishing in the
Atlantic Ocean.
More Fish. Wanted
The small fishermen bring in few
thousand pounds of fish in day. At a
point like Morehead City, which is the
most important fish distributing center
in North Carolina, the supply of fish at
the present time and for years past has
been adequate only for the demands of
a limited territory. A number of
wholesale fish dealers at Morehead City
do an express business, supplying retail
fish dealers in North Carolina towns and
cities. What they can't sell in this way
they risk by express to Philadelphia and
New York and fish shipped over such
distances often reach their destination
in bad order. Seldom do all the. fisher
men in Morehead City put together get
enough fish in day to make refrlger-
ator car shipment to New York City.
And vet New York, Philadelphia, Pitts
burgh. Toledo, Cincinnati, Chicago and
many other cities are clamoring for car
load shipments of fish daily.
1t was the Morehead City fish dealers
who sought permission to engage IN
ocean pound net fishing. These dealers
declare that they must get more fish or
go out of business and the only way to
get more fish is to fish as they fish IN
Florida. in Virginia, in Maryland, in Jer-
sey and all the rest of the way up the
coast-plant pound nets in the ocean
and take the fish by tons. They do not
agree with the smaller fishermen who
say that such wholesale fishing will glut
the market and lower prices to an ap-
preciable extent They argue that the
more fish. they can produce, the more
fish they can sell; the local market they
say is restricted; the market for car
load lots is unlimited. Morehead City
folk believe that ocean pound net nsh-
ing will make that town one OF the
greatest fish distributing points on the
Atlantic Coast and put the fishing IN
dustry of North Carolina on footing
with the industry in other states where
ocean fishing has long been a source
of greatest profit to fishermen.
Employment for Fishermen.
I have made the statement here that
ocean pound net fishing has not been
permitted in North Carolina for several
years. There has been one exception.
When we entered the great world war
and the cry went up for a greater pro-
.fluctioh of food, the Star Fish Co., OF
Morehead City, went over the head of
the N. G.. Fisheries Commission Board
and secured a special permit from Her
bert Hoover to set a pound net in the
ocean near Beaufort Inlet during the
period of the war. AS the war was de-
clared ended just a few days ago, this
net has been successfully operated since
1913
E. II. Gorham, president of the Star
Fish Co, has been so impressed with
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