Evening Star Newspaper, June 8, 1930, Page 95

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE & 1930.° BY WILLIAM A. MILLEN. LMOST at Washington’s front door there is an industry, estimated at $10,000,000 annually, without facto- ries and little advertising, that the average urbanite of the National Capital knows little about. Representing an investment placed at $5,500,000, the shad and herring fishermen are at this time just finish- ln(npthebrie!mwnthatmthroush March, April and May, but brings in returns enough to tide them over the rest of the year. In the Chesapeake Bay region and its tribu- taries, it is estimated that there are some 45,000 tons of fish caught, valued at some $10,000,000. Of this, it is thought that Wash- ington consumes about $850,000 worth of fish, representing some 3,000 tons of shad and herring. In the Chesapeake Bay area the United States Engineer offices in Washington, in Bal- timore and in Norfolk have jurisdiction. The jargest number of nets are under the jurisdie- tion of Maj. Brehon Somervell, district engineer for the War Department for the Washington area. In the Spring E. J. Merrick, jr., civil engineer in Maj. Somervell's office, sends In- spector G. D. Rittenhouse down to the Chesa-~ mmymbhzmwmnfltmmum kept clear of the navigation lanes. The Fall inspection is to insure that the buoys are in the proper Jlocations, out of the channels. . ANY’'S the stirring tale that the bronzed and sea-swept fisher folk can tell of the quest for shad and herring, which come up the rlvmmihhuestomvnmnuchu:d April. ‘The peculiar thing about it, say the nshu'meu,htbnthuemhareuunwum going upstream, and seldom, if ever, with the the current. The habits of these fish are em- shrouded with a ecertain amount of mystery, the fishermen claim, for they are believed to swim downstream deep in the water, so that they are seldom caught making their way out to sea again. The majority of their traps are scattered from York Spit Light to Blakistone Island, including the mouth of York River, Mobjack Bay and the mouth of the Rappahannock River. Taft Post Office, Gwynns Island, Reed- ville, Coan River, in Virginia, and Crisfield, Md., are the areas in which these shad and herring fishermen live. Of course, the oyster and erab industries are well known, but shad and her- ring represent another phase of the livelihood that is earned by the men who go down to the rivers in ships. The herring eanning fac- tories that are spread along these shores below Washington tell of the thriving trade. Inspector Rittenhouse has just returned to the National Capital following an exhaustive trip in the bay region. The shad and the her- ring in their upstream runs, he explains, come as close to Washington as Colonial Beach, Va., but Maj. Somervell's office has jurisdie- tion for the Washington area as far south as York Spit, at the mouth of the York River. Apart from the deep-sea fishing outside the capes, Inspector Rittenhouse has placed the total number of nets in the Chesapeake Bay region in this proportion: 2,000 nets in the Washington area of the United States Engineer Office, 600 in the Norfolk area and about 400 in the Baltimore area. These so-called trap nets, he explains, cost between $1,500 and $2,000 each. There are from 800 to 1,000 owners and each fisherman employs from four to seven men to aid him in his task. In addition to this fishing array there are some 500 gill nets, by which the fish are caught by the gills, and these nets cost from $200 to $300 each. This type is used in the rivers, where the water is not so clear. The fish swim into these gill nets and they are then pulled up. The average life of the net is given as from two to three years, depending upon usage and weather conditions. INE poles in the traps used in the bay are from 50 to 75 feet long and are set in 45 to 50 feet of ‘water. These poles are jammed down into the river bed by piledrivers and water jets. The smaller poles are put down by putting stirrups over the poles, and then men on planks jump up and down on these, driving them down into the soft bottom. The hard botte#n requires a jet of water to dig a hole into which the pole can be driven. The “hedging,” as the lead into the big nets is termed, is 600 to 800 feet long, and i= a large, meshed net, large enough for the fish to swim through, but they do mot. When they b ) Hauling in the “catch” in the Chesapeake Bay country. Ten Million Dollars Is the Annual Esti- mate of Business Done by the Fishing Industry in Waters Near National Capital, With Shad and Herring Claiming a Major Portion of the Crop. come to this “hedging,” they swim for deep water. This leads them into a heart-shaped net, termed the “big bay,” and the narrow end of this leads into the “little bay,” and from this a funnel leads into the pound head. The mesh of the bays and pound head nets is smaller than the “hedging” and the fish cannot go through it. The net is then drawn nered and dipped out by boat. Great bhardships are men, for they are out Their faces are tanned and and cold and rain. ground of weather for them a reputation In weather that wou lubber, these fisher folk of the put out into the teeth of the wind and reap the finny harvest. Storms and careless boatsmen account for the loss of many of their nets. Sometimes the fish are lost because of the rough water. In the fishing area, when the season is at its best, boats, which are known as “buy boats” stand off, ready to welcome boatloads of fish and the fishermen, who will close a bargain of sale right on the water. Boats from Crisfield and the canning factories are there, ready to purchase the fish, fresh out of the waters of ¢he Potomac, York, Patuxent and Rappahan- nock Rivers. Inspector Rittenhcuse has ascertained that some of the traps have been set and fished in the same place by three and four generations of Old Dominion fisherfolk. The fishing lore is passed down from father to son and these communities live a life of their own, with little farming to turn their. thoughts aside from the serious business of grappling with the Chesa- peake Bay waters. The inspector from Maj. Somervell's office patrols the lines of the fishermen from Febru- ary 1 to April 1, in preparation for the fishing season, which is now drawing to a close. During the season, the traps are fished every day the weather permits. URING the Winter season, when the snow is swirling around the Isaacs, off Cape Charles; Old Point Comfort and Cape Henry, the fishing communities dotting the indented bays along the broken Virginia shore, are giving their attention to repairing of the nets that mean bread and butter to them. During the long dark evenings and im the dreary, wintry days, the fisherfolk may be seen mending their nets, with deft, though gnarled hands, that are better used to hauling ropes than tying slender strands. The boats are overhauled, too, during the dull season, for there are leaks to be caulked Type of craft used by shad and herring fishermen in Chesapeake Bay. " Woaag 0 adee’ Bivow dorking 12 | :}?;'s/zing a Rich Harvest Out of Chesapeake Bay up or a gunwhale to be replaced or other parts of the craft to be put in order. Absut Christmas the fisherfolk get to werk and spread tar over the strands of the nets, to make them withstand the ravages of the salt water when they are set out in the open bay. Then, when the first robin appears im the Chesapeake Bay country and the pioneer erocus pops its head above the erstwhile wintry ground, the fisherfolk turn their thoughts bayward and envision the rich harvest of shad and herring that will bring them money to keep body and soul together, sweeping in in schools from the great, mysterious sea that lies eastward of the Virginia Peninsula. The Spring tides, sweeping upward through Chesapeake Bay, are music to the ears of the shad and herring fishermen, for then it is time to launch out into the deep and put down the nets and to tap the mines of fish that have been caught in the traps that have been set eut in the chill days of February and March. And so it is that here, almost at the threshold of the Nation’s Capital, there is a race of plain fisherfolk. engaged in a calling that assumes the proportion of a sizeable industry. Glouces- ter, Mass., may be famed as a rendezvous of fishers, but in a lesser degree Washington has its own “Gloucester” in the islanded reaehes of Chesapeake Bay from Colonial Beach to Mobjack Bay and out into the greal ocean. Cheap Source for Vitamin D AClmAPmdtbundmta(mreeo(MD. which is so essential to growth, has been discovered Dy Pederal chemists in other iypes of fish than the cod, and the refuse heaps of canneries may now be turned intc a source of revenue which at the same time will give the farmer a cheaper oil than the cod liver which so many are now feeding their stock. The investigators believe that these oils are obtainable at one-third to one-fourth the - ent cost of cod liver oil, which is widely in stock and chicken feeds because of its P From this information it appears that farmers™ may obtain a more economical supply of vitamin D with which to supplement the vitamin A content of such feeds as yellow corm and alfalfa. Pilchard oil, 4,000,000 gallons of which are produced annually from California sardimes, is as rich in vitamin D as cod liver oll. Tuna eil, equally rich in this vitamin, is less abundant. Salmon oil is about one-half as rich in vitamin D as cod liver oil, and its vitamin A content is about the same as the poorer grades of cod Mver oil. Because of the great supply, the price paid for vitamins A and D in salmon oil is mow lower than the price paid for those vitamins im cod liver oil, The Federal chemists believe that manufac- turers can change their methods and improve the vitamin A content of salmon oil. At present the production of salmon oil is slightly less than that of cod liver oil. The supply, however, ean be increased five or six fold, because millions ef pounds of salmon offal from which the oll eould be recovered are dumped into Alaskan waters every year. Minor Accidents in Mines. CONVINCXNG proof that the spectacular ex- plosion is by no means the cause of the great toll of lives taken each month in coal mines is to be found in the figures for April of %’ this year. There were 159 miners who lost their lives during the 30-day period and all of these were in minor accidents, only one major disaster, this one claiming 17 lives, having been recorded. Further proof is to be found in the fact that the death rate per million tons of anthracite mined was almost double that of soft The little careless accidents, such as eon with electric power lines, falls of roofs and walls and hauling accidents which find place only in official reports, go to annual toll of lives. It is against this accident that the Bureau of Mines safety is now being directed with vigor.