The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1921-12-09
NORTH CAROLINA
|CHAMOIS SKIN
An Unique Industry in North
Carolina Depends Upon
Sharks
BY w. O. SAUNDERS,

| SN eAAAN AItAo1 1OuS Shl1l WlilCl
| she thinks is Chamois, it prob.
ably isn't Chamois skin at all. In.
stead Of being the skin of heet
and agile goat-1ike- animal that
once leaped the chasms of the
Tyrolean Alps or ganboled upon
the precipitous cliffs of the Pyr-
enees, it may be just a part OF
an important testine of a bull
shark taken on the North Caro-
lima Coast.
| Much of the so-called chamOis skin
of modern commerce is made from the
{ fbrous intestine or sac that carries the
seminal fluid of the male shark, and
| thousands of sharks caught on the
| North Carolina Coast supply the trade
with these skins.
''Chamois skin" is but one of several
| articles of commerce obtained from the
shark. From the hide of this sea
monster a beautiful leather is obtained
which is used extensively in the man
ufac5urs of shoes, gloves, purses, hand
bags and leather goods of the finer
sorts. From the liver of the shark is
extracted one of the most valuable oil;
of commerce. The fins of the shark are
eagerly purchased by the Chinese and
other Orientals. From the skull of the
| shark is taken valuable ge1atinous
substance which science expects to use
extensively in the treatment of mental
diseases. And from the flesh and refuse
fertilizer is made.
Probably the most important shark
fishery in the world is located on the
North Carolina Coast, near Morehead
City. The plant is owned by the Ocean
Leather Co. of New York City It
employs a force of ten or a dozen men
in the preparation and manufacture of
oil and fertilizer. The hides of the
sharks are shipped to a tannery in
Newark. y. J. The fins are sun dried
and sold to the Chinese in New York
and other Eastern cities. The Chinese
consider these fins great uelicacy for
soup making. Last year the Chinese
in America couldn't consume all the fins
produced at Morehead City and severa!
shipments Of fins we're exported to Hon
olulu and Hong Kong.
An average shark yields about -
pounds of dried fins for which the trade
pays 60 cents a pound.
The liver of the shark is rich sin oil.
AS much as 210 pounds of oil has been
taken from the liver of one shark. The
same shark yields two and a half to
;hree square feet of ''Chamois skim
say nothing of the hide which may be
as big as a cows.
How Sharks Are Caught.
The Ocean Leather Co. at NIorehead
City has three crews of fishermen en-
gagged in the work of catching sharks.
The sharks are caught in enormous gill
nets made of stout rope. The shark
fishermen set their nets for sharks in
the ocean, just like the gill net fisher
man set their nets for mullets in the
inland sounds.
The sharks usually go into the nets
at night and most of them drown in
the nets in a few hours, robbing the
fishermen of the exciting and extreme
ly hazardous sport of taking them alive
from the nets next morning. Occasion
ally a big and virile specimen will be
alive when the net is fshed. 1t is
killed by spearing or by a blow on the
head delivered with a hammer.
Sharks range in length from five to
eighteen or twenty feet. The average
length of sharks caught. by the More
head City fishermen is about welve
feet. A derrick is required to lift the
monsters from the nets to the deck of
the fishing steamer.
af ch orlyc il-a hn
of other fish, is at all times uncertain.
Some days there are no sharks at all;
other days the crews bring in twenty
five or thirty of the monsters; some
days more. The catch on Friday, Dec.
2, 1921, was 119 sharks ranging in
length from five to seventeen feet each.
To Get EN- With Dynamite.
The shark fishermen are looking for
a better way Of taking their game than
by netting Nets are altogether cum
bersome and expensive. Once, at great
expense, enormous baited hoks held to
buoys at sea were employed, but the
sharks either refused the bait or took
the buoys out to sea when they took
the bait. An investment of thousands
of dollars in hooks and buoys had to
be scrapped.
And now the Ocean-Leather Co. plans
to hunt the shark with dynamite. The
boats will patrol the sea looking for
schools of sharks and dynamite an en-
tire school at one operation. The dyna-
miting of sharks was to have been at
tempted this fall and cargo of dyna-
mite was shipped from the East to
NIorehead City on the trim little schoon-
er Louise Howard. The Louise Howard
arrived off Beaufort bar in storm last
August and went ashore. The schooner,
valued at $4,000 and its explosive car
go were total loss. Luckily the cargo
of dynamite did not explode and the
crew was saved.
There are five varieties of true
sharks caught on the North Carolina
Coast. They are the Shovelnose, the
Sandbar, the BIacklip, the Leopard and
the Maneater. Then there is small