The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1956-09-28
| JUMPING MULLET
SEASON BRINGING
THRILLS TO MANY
One Of North carolina's Most
important Food Fish Takes
on Profitable Meaning

ming to school up" as they seek
to head for the open sea to spawn
and many commercial fishermen
in this coastal area are smiling.
Mullets are very profitable to
numerous fishermen this time of
year, and nets have been out,
ready, and operating for several
weeks. From earliest remem-
brance they have been highly
profitable to the people of the
coastland and in olden days they
were an important item of COM
merce, being sailed and boated
away by barrels to trade for corn
and other products in the up
country.
The first "mullet blow" occur
red recently and some $4,000
pounds of what the fishermen
fondly refer to as "the ju.lpin'
mullet" were caught between At
lantic Beach and Fort Macon and
at Salter Path, a few miles west
of Atlantic Beach.
This is the beginning of the sea-
son for the mullet, which lives in
early months of the year in the
sounds and creeks and rivers, to
head for the Atlantic Ocean to lay
their eggs. Why they choose to
spawn in the open sea instead of
the quieter waters of the sounds
and rivers is something the fish
experts have not quite fathomed
as yet. The mullet, though, blithe-
ly sets out, usually in early Sep
TENDER, to head out of the sounds
toward the open sea.
For reasons best known to the
mullet they "school up" and slow
ly wend their way toward the
turbulent Atlantic. Null
let fishermen on the lookout for
the schools, usually containing
thousands of the succulent fish, go
into action when they spot the
slowly moving fish.
In fact, persons walking along
the beach can keep pace with the
slowly n wing schools of mullet.
The wind must be right to cause
the mullet to travel in large
schools. 1t doesn't take the mullet
very long to get their
big nets in the path of the slowly
fish when northerly winds
prevail.
Mullet caught are shipped up
throughout the state, Virginia,
Maryland, New York and else
where by commercial fishermen.
North Carolina mullet are fea-
tured by Raleigh's largest down
town cafeteria. And they are adj
vertised as "Fresh Jumpin' North
Carolina Mullet."
Mullet, incidentally, are an i'm
portant factor in the states sea-
food economy. Many of the $4,000
or more persons dependent wholly
or in part on commercial fishing
for their livelihood along the
North Carolina coast go after null
let.
During the biennium July, 1854,
to June 80, 1856, mullet catches
in North Carolina waters totaled
1921 ,435 pounds. Their values to
the fishermen who caught them
was put at S594,137.
In report in 1872 to the Com
of Fish and Fisheries"
DR.. H. c. Yarrow has left some
interesting information about the
habits of mullet. He wrote:
"The striped mullet is of wide
distribution; in the new world it
is found coastwise from Massachu-
sets to Brazil and from California
to Chile; in the old world it inhab-
its the waters of southern Europe
and northern Africa. On the South
Atlantic coast of the United
States, it occurs in immense num-
bers, being one of the most abun-
dant food fishes from North
Carolina southwark. It attains a
length of 2.5 feet, but averages
less than 1.5 feet. The largest
known mullet caught in North
Carolina waters weighed 10
pounds"
DR.. Yarrow continued: "This is
by far the most abundant and i'm
portant salt water fish in North
Carolina, ranking next to Florida
in the extent of the mullet fishery.
It is found on the ocean beaches
and in the sounds and estuaries
during a large part of the year,
and is usually caught mostly with
seines."
The 1872 report by DIR. Yarrow
tells of simply enormous" catches
of mullet in this area and else
where on the coast of the state.
at was estimated" DIR. Yarrow
wrote, "by competent observers
that not less than $4,000 barrels
of mullet were captured on the
coast of North Carolina Friday
September %, 1871"
Corned mullet is a product long
known tn housewiyac of this anf