In previous centuries, an amazing fishing fleet was headquartered along the riverfront of New Bern. Working sailboats by the hundreds, plus rowboats, net boats, skiffs and canoes. Reports of the annual harvest of local seafood sound like lies. Fish by the millions! Oysters by the ton!
One of the stars of the show was a migratory fish called the shad. Shad live in the ocean, but each Spring biological imperatives drive them into the rivers and estuaries of the Eastern Seaboard, loading rivers named Albemarle, Pamlico, Tar, Chowan and Neuse. Adults range three to eight pounds.
The annual shad runs were highly valued by the indigenous people along the Neuse River. These native Indians are said to have taught the early settlers how to harvest and prepare the bloody, bony creatures. Properly cooked, its taste is compared to Atlantic salmon.
Shad still pour in annually from the sea but tales from the 1700s to the late 1800s speak of boat-sinking, net-breaking numbers of the shiny, silver swimmers. Shad provided not only essential protein but also a cash crop of significant commercial value to Craven County fishermen.
In 1901, Professor Otis Miller of Asheville wrote of his experiences here: “I have wanted ever since I became a resident of the state to visit New Bern of Swiss settlement and now I have seen every crook and cranny of it. I expected to find an abundance of fish diet here and I find it. Just now shad … They say the catch of shad is small and the price is high – that is, about four cents a pound. I see boys peddling fish roe, a hat full for a nickel.”
Professor Miller said he also found oysters downtown along the Trent River. “I strolled down to the wharf Sunday and watched an old man eat oysters in the shell,” he wrote. “The oyster boat had a sign up: All You Can Eat for Ten Cents. The old man was obviously hollow all the way down and all the way up again. After he had eaten enough to supply a half a dozen church festivals and had a pile of shells by his side, enough to pave a piece of road, the man who was prying the bivalves open laid down his knife and said: ‘Boss, I’ll give you a nickel to let me off’.”
Shad and other types of seafood stock in the Neuse started a downward spiral in the early 1900s; overfishing the primary culprit. In the Chesapeake Bay, which is quite comparable to Pamlico Sound, the shad harvest dropped from 17.5 million pounds in 1900 to just two million by the 1970s. Nevertheless, over the next few months the reliable shad will be back for a visit.
by Edward Ellis, Special Correspondent
Eddie Ellis is the author of New Bern History 101 and other works about Craven County’s rich heritage. He can be reached at flexspace2@aol.com.