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PAGES
CARTERET COUNTY NEWS - TIMES
A Merger of THE BEAUFORT NEWS (Established 1912) and THE TWIN CITY TIMES (Established 1936)
MOREHEAD CITY AND BEAUFORT, NORTH CAROLINA FRIDAY, NOV. 10, 1950
Annual
Fishing
Edition
1,136 Shrimp Trawlers Ply State Waters
Beginning Nov . 27 State Fisheries Committee
Will Conduct Series of Meetings Along Coast
Beginning Monday, Nov. 27, the
commercial fisheries committee of
the Board of Conservation and De
velopment will hold a series cf six
meetings along the coast to ac
quaint fishermen with regulations
and statutory laws and get their
opinions on those laws.
This is part of the program
initiated this year to simplify and
codify the state's fishery regula
tions.
New Booklet Published
Published in October were the
codified laws, Subchapter IV, Fish
and Fisheries, listed in order and
indexed.
The former booklet on rules and
regulations was such a hodge-podge
that it required diligent seeking
and unending patience to learn ex
actly what the state rulings were.
Roy Hampton, chairman of the
commercial fisheries committee,
and his committee members met
several times during the past few
months in an effort to re-organize
these regulations. They received
help from the office of the state
attorney general.
Mr. Hampton expressed the hope
that a great number of the laws
that are now repititious, will be
eliminated at the next session of
the legislature.
Meeting Dates
The six meetings, to be held in
coastal towns, are the following:
Southport, Nov. 27; Jacksonville,
Nov. 28; Morehead City, Nov. 29;
Swan Quarter, Nov. 30; Manteo,
Dec. 1; and Edenton, Dec. 2.
The sessions will take place in
the court house in each town, with
the exception of Morehead City,
where the meeting will be held in
the commercial fisheries building.
It is hoped that eventually the
laws will be listed also according
to counties. In that matiner, for
example, all the laws pertaining to
fisheries in Carteret county would
be under one heading.
C. D. Kirkpatrick, law enforce
? ment officer for the commercial
fisheries division, said a simplifi
cation of the listing of rules and
regulations will partially take away
the fishermen's favorite excuae
when he is found disobeying the
law. That is that he did not know
the law existed.
Mr. Kirkpatrick commented that
the way the rules are listed now
only a lawyer can figure them out
Work Progresses
At Shellfish Lab
Work is now well underway at
the U. S. shellfish laboratory on
Pivers Island where studies are be
ing conducted on the foods and
feeding of marine animals.
The recently remodeled labora
tory building was occupied by Dr.
Walter A. Chipman, director, and
his staff which includes Dr. T. R.
Rice, biologist, R. R. Thompson,
biochemist, D. J. Floyd, biologist,
and Miss Elizabeth Willis, secre
tary.
During the past four months the
small microscopic marine plants,
which serve as pastures of the sea
on which the animal sea life grazes,
were raised and cultured in the lab
oratory and conditions promoting
their moat rapid and best growth
investigated, Dr. Chipman stated.
The chemical nature of these plants
is being foUowed with the view of
finding their true value as a food
for the marine animals, he said.
See WOKK PROGRESSES, Page 7
' <
No Waterhaul This Time
One of the biggest beach hauls this fall is pic
tured above. Capt. R. T. Frost, left, captain of
the fishing crew, and Albert Lea, fish dealer of
Morehead City, hold two of the fish to indicate
their size. This catch, consisting of Hues, spanish
mackerel, and pompano, was close to 5,000 pounds
and was made on Rogue banks, three miles east of
Salter Path. In the background men are hauling
in another net. Photo by Dan W. Wade
1949 Brought Record Number
Of Pogy Boats to North Carolina
Bombay Scientists
Visit Beaufort
Recent visitors at the United
States Biological laboratory on Pi
ver'i Island were two men from
India who recently received their
master's degrees in fisheries tech
nology at the University of Wash
ington, Seattle.
They are Toity D'Mello and
Shree Killekar, who were sent to
this country by their government,
the province of Bombay, to study
and observe methods of fishing in
the United States. They will be
engaged in fisheries work in Bom
bay when they return th#re. They
expect to sail from New York Dec.
16.
The two scientists observed fish
eries along the Pacific coast and
the North Atlantic before coming
to Beaufort. They left the labora
tory on Fiver's Island Sunday and
continued to the University of Mi
ami's marine laboratory at Coral
Gables. A visit to fisheries in
states along the Gulf of Mexico will
conclude their observations in this
country.
While in the Beaufort area, they
saw bow mullet were taken, trawl
ed from a shrimp boat, and went
out on a menhaden boat.
D'Mello commented that the
fisheries in these waters were ex
tremely interesting and valuable
to them.
The 1949 menhaden season saw more boats in North
Carolina waters seeking schools of pogies than in any oth
er year.
Eighty-two boats operated out of Beaufort, Morehead
City and Southport, towns where menhaden plants are lo
cated. The catch for the two-year period, 1948-50, set
another new record, but the 1950
summer season in North Carolina
was way below average.
Local boats fishing in Gulf wat
ers, out of Louisiana ports, report
ed excellent catches, however.
No accurate prediction can be
made as to the number of boats ex
pected here this winter. Beginning
the middle of October, more were
seen each day tied up at docks in
Beaufort and Morehead City. In
1948 there were 60 in the fleet and
it is believed that 1950's number
will equal that and probably more.
In the two-year period ending
June 30, 1950, North Carolina hand
led one-third of the nation's total
menhaden catch.
Ten Factories
Ten menhaden factories are ex
pected to be in operation in the
itate within the next year as com
pared with nine last year. A new
company, Southport Fisheries, inc.,
has been organized and construc
tion was started early this {all on
its plant just west ol Fort Caswell
near Southport.
Another plant, Brunswick Navi
gation co. is located at Southport.
There are four in Beaufort, The
Fish Meal co., operated by Harvey
Smith, Qulnn Fisheries, operated
by Wallace Quinn, Beaufort Fisher
ies. owned by W. V. B. Potter, W.
See UCOKD FLEET. Page IS
Atomic Energy Official
Twit Shellfish Lab
Elmer Higgins, special assis
tant iO the director for liaison
with the Atomic Energy commis
sion. U. S. Fish and Wildlife Ser
vice, and Edwin H. Dahlgren,
chief of the section of marine
fisheries, of the F4WL service,
were at the U. S. shellfish labora
tory at Fivers Island last week
conferring with Dr. Walter A.
Chipman, director of the labora
tory, and his staff regarding pro
gress in studies being conducted
with radioisotopes in fisheries
research.
During the conference plans
were made for further studies on
the organism causing the "red
tide," which caused a great fish
mortality a short time ago along
the Florida coast It Is planned
to add an additional biologist to
the staff to help in this research.
This phase of the studies will be
under the immediate aupervtalon
of Dr. T. K. Rice of the labors
tory.
Crab license! and taxes in North
Carolina amounted to $2,217.81 In
1949-90 while power boat licenses
totaled *380.
One thousand one hundred
thirty-six shrimp trawlers
this year are plying North
Carolina waters in search of
the delicacy which in com
paratively recent years has
come to the fore as one of
the biggest commodities on
the food fish market.
On July 1 shrimp fishing legally
began in this state and will con
tinue until the last day of this
year. The catches are off as com
pared with last season, and while
scientists claim it is part of a
"down cycle" that is to be expected
every so many years, waterfront
sages say that all the young ones
are being destroyed that they have
all gone South, or advance other
theories which they believe account
for the drop.
360,632 Pounds Off
Catches for July, August and
September of this year are 360,
632 pounds less than for the same
three months in 1949, according to
statistics released at the commer
cial fisheries office in Morehead
City.
The catch for the first three
months of this season totaled 3,
722.811 pounds (heads on) as com
pared with 4,083,443 pounds ( heads
on) for the same period last year.
October Dull
October is usually a very active
month for shrimp fishermen but
last month "the shrimp just were
n't here," they explain.
With exception of the menhaden
industry shrimping has been by
far the most profitable fishery of
the state. Captain John Nelson,
former fisheries commissioner, in
his last biennial report, remarks
that increasingly large numbers
of boats have engaged in it,
"though some have not found it
profitable.
"The two years, from June 30,
1948 to June 30, 1950, brought the
largest catches of shrimp in our
history," he declared.
"Practically all of the shrimp
north of Southport were caught on
the inside while ill those in the
Southport area were caught on the
outside," the report continues.
15,942,245 Pounds
Total production for the two
year period ending June 30, 1950
was 15,042,245 pounds with heads
on, at a value of $3,008,499. The
production for the previous two
years was 9,048,533 pounds at a
value of $3,166,987. Even though
the pound total was more in 1948
50, the value decreased $158, 4B8.
Food fin fishermen for many
years have accused shrimp trawl
ers of destroying the young edible
fish, thus endangering their means
of gaining ? livelihood. Scientific
study during 1949 and 1950, con
ducted by the Institute of Fisher
ies Research, Morehead City, has
indicated, however, that these ac
cusations are without foundation.
The report on these findings was
published in August of this year
by the United States Department
of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife
Service, under the title "Releasing
Small Fish and Shrimp from Trawl
Nets." Experiments were conduct
ed and the report prepared by Dr.
Eugene W. Roelofs of the Institute
of Fisheries Research.
Patrol Boat Captain*
Captains of the state's eight pa
trol boats are Capt. Tom Basnight
on the Croatan at Manteo; Capt.
C. W. Hayman on the Albemarle at
Eden ton; Capt. Emest Poston on
the Neuse at New Bern; Capt. C.
L. Sawyer on the Ocracoke at Swan
Quarter; Capt. Louis E. Willis on
the Pamlico at Morehead City;
Capt. C. G. Nelson on the speed
boat at Atlantic; and Capt. Roy
Brown on the Cape Fear at More
head City.