Waste of Fishes, Etc.
The Eastern Shore of Virginia has for many years been famous for its fish, oysters, terrapins and clams, water vegetables, as they were facetiously called in old times. The supply of each has been considered inexhaustible almost, and under this belief, the laws enacted for regulating the catching and taking of the aforesaid edibles have either been inadequate, or executed in a very lax manner, or not at all, until the supply is so greatly depleted as to be threatened with destruction. Anyone who will carefully consider and compare the quantities here forty years ago with the scarcity of today, must admit that if something is not done to stop the waste, we will soon be without those food delicacies, or the prices will be beyond the means of the greater portion of the people. Terrapins have now reached a price for "counts" that is prohibitive. In the larger cities they bring from $70.00 to $100 per dozen -- formerly they were $5.00 and slow sale at that. Oysters which forty years ago were so plentiful that a man could catch from the natural beds in a tide easily, as many "number ones," now called "selects," as a horse could pull, at an expense not exceeding ten cents per bushel, must now be bought from oyster planters at a cost of about four dollars per barrel, or $16 per cart load. The price is prohibitive to the pocket book of our ordinary citizen. Under proper legislation and enforcement of laws, there would still be an abundance at moderate prices for everybody. Clams too, are growing beautifully less. Many clamming shoals have been grabbed under a bed law and converted into oyster grounds. Oyster rocks have been hoed and raked for clams to the utter destruction of both bivalves. $5.00 and $6.00 per thousand is now charged for clams which were formerly a drug in the market at $2.50, and the tendency is upward. What has become of our sheepshead, hogfish and roaches? is a question I have frequently heard asked. The answer is easily found, they have been caught up and destroyed by purse nets, fish pounds, fykes, etc. Some may still be caught, possibly in the lower part of the county, but they are numbered with the past in this section.
In 1873, Mr. Booth, who at that time owned the Battle Point farm in Occohannock Neck, told me that himself and friends had made an average catch of from ten to twenty sheepshead per day at the end of his wharf, whenever they had fished there that summer, and that they did not have to enter a boat, but simply sat on the wharf and hauled them up. "Huddles" were frequently seen off the mouth of our various bayside creeks, around these the sheepshead would congregate and many were caught near them for family use. Now we seldom see a sheepshead fish, they are too scarce and high priced for our pocketbooks, and like the bay mackerel, are sent to northern markets.
In 1865 my father took three of us out fishing one day, we were all novices except himself. We went to Peter's channel where we found a skiff with Capt. Edward Robbins, another fisherman, and 72 sheepshead in it, all caught by those two on that tide with hand lines. At Capt. Robbins' request "we took his drop," as the fishermen say, and in a little more than a half hour we caught 48 nice ones. Out of the present supply we could catch as many in 48 years.
The hog fish of the Eastern Shore were unrivalled in excellence among fishes. They were frequently on the tables of all our citizens, and for a bushel to be caught in a day by one fisherman with his hand line was no common occurrence. Roaches (or spots) too, were plentiful, anyone could get as many as they needed, and to go fishing on a Saturday, as relaxation for mind and body after a week's work in the fields, was beneficial and enjoyable. Now if a farmer fishes on the bayside he must content himself with white mullets or nothing, and on the seaside, where the trout are following the shade of the sheepshead, hogfish and roaches.
No one will dispute the above statements I think, except possibly some one pecuniarily interested in gobbling up all he can get, no matter who suffers. I am now over 60 years old and cannot reasonably expect very many more years to be remaining to me, but I found plenty of fishes on the Eastern Shore of Virginia when I can first remember, a thousand, I believe, where there is one now. I would like to leave some, anyhow, for future generations when I die, and with this object only in view, I ask our people to call a halt upon the waste of our fishes by purse nets, fish pounds, etc.
What we need is the enforcement of existing laws rather than the enactment of new ones. The laws now are evaded or ignored in toto. Purse netting should be prohibited within at least a degree of latitude of our shores. This can be accomplished by enlisting the aid of our representatives and senators in congress, and I believe that Delaware and New Jersey will cooperate. No fish pound or device for taking fish should have a net with meshes smaller than one and one half inches. Such is the law now, but it is disregarded. One inch square meshes are used, and these when tarred are reduced in size until a good sized minnow can scarcely get through them, hence nothing escapes. Small fishes are composted or die in the traps and are emptied out for crabs to eat. The pounds on the bayside, except possibly those near Cape Charles, are no longer very profitable it is said, and pound men are now anxious to set pounds on the seaside to fill their pockets, regardless of the warning furnished by the bayside, and many citizens are giving their approval and countenance to their work of destruction simply because for a time they can get a few more fish, but in five years in my judgement, with pounds on the seaside, fish will be as scarce as they are on the bayside.
One of the ablest authorities on fishes and fisheries ever in the United States (and probably in the world) now dead, but for many years at the head of the department of fisheries of the U.S., when writing of the Chesapeake and adjacent waters, said that fishes are like our wild water fowls, in that they have their regular routes and feeding grounds. If killed out or from any cause driven away from a pasture, it requires a long time for it to become restocked, unless done artificially. That in the early spring as the schools or shoals of fishes come up the Atlantic coast from their southern sojourn, a part follows the main channel in and around Cape Henry, these stock the streams on the Western Shore of the bay. Other schools cross the mouth of the bay to Cape Charles and supply the Broadwater and bayside of the Eastern Shore of Virginia and higher up. These schools, after spawning on the ocean side, use the waters and feeding grounds on both sea and bay at will, interchangeably, being materially governed by food supply and weather conditions.
The above reference to Prof. Bache is not intended to be in exactly his words, but it is the substance of an article I read years ago from his pen, and as partial proof of the correctness of his views.
Why are not the pounds on the bayside opposite here catching as many fish now as they will catch later? I answer that the fishes on seaside have not yet spawned, it is now almost time for them to do, and that later there will be more fish caught on bayside.
From the foregoing it is evident to me that if pounds are allowed on the seaside, there will soon be no fish on either seaside or bayside worth noticing. If anyone differs with me in my opinions herein expressed, I will be pleased to hear from him, feeling assured that dispassionate discussion of the subject can but result in the general welfare. "It is too late to lock the stable door after the horse is stolen," is a true old adage, and something should be done.
THOS. T. UPSHUR.