Shellfishing In The Chesapeake (1956)

is the third important shellfish found in considerable quantities in Virginia while clam production is small compared with that of the oyster clamming operations are nevertheless important this softshell variety has lately been gaining in favor and finding new markets and the sales of hardshell clams are increasing yearly so that the annual income of the clam industry is approaching the million dollar figure hardshell clams can be marketed at all stages of their growth which explains why these marketable clams vary so in size about three-quarters of virginia's clam production comes from the ocean side of the Eastern Shore from the area marked on this map and near Virginia's northern boundary of Chincoteague are the largest beds in the world in these beds are planted and grow millions of clams brought from all over the Atlantic coast these clams are dug by hand whenever there is market demand for any particular size each basket when full is carried to the barges that take the clams to the processing plants when you see the number of clams on the barges and realize that this activity goes on day after day you get some idea of how large is the clam production from these Chincoteague beds where the clams are dug with hooks the best implement to take them undamaged from sand flats left uncovered at low tide the clam rake is the best implement to take up clams when they are growing in water shallow enough so that the clamor can wade in it hand tongs are used to take clams from waters which while still shallow are too deep for waiting operations patent tongs are the gear used to bring up clams from the deeper waters of the York River and several hundred boats operate here in the winter and early spring this York River fleet also patent on for oysters oyster in starts each year when at the end of September boats from every port in Virginia are found on the James River heading for Menchville on the map you can see that mince Vil is the closest harbour to the marked section of the James River we're on Scholes underwater are the largest beds of seed oysters in the world from Menchville go hundreds of boats at dawn on the first weekday in October when the season opens and Easter's can be legally gathered from the beds [Music] the James River seed beds are public rocks this means that any Virginia resident who has the oyster Tong heirs license required by the state can take oysters from them these seed beds are what make the oyster industry what it is today and that is why when the season opens so many boats are anchored work seed oysters can only be taken with oyster tongs the long wooden handles work scissors like two metal rakes that scrape up the oysters from the river bottom the men tongue oyster Tong as they're called dumped each Tong full on the boat skull board where the seed oysters are called sorted from the old empty shelves and other waste materials the tongs bring up larger boats often have several Tonga's and one man the color who spends all his time culling seed oysters and sending back into the water everything else which has no seed oysters growing on it this waste material maintains the hard surface on the bottom which baby oysters need to survive putting back this waste material is required by Virginia law so that these beds will keep producing new generations of seed oysters to be tonged each year unfold until their boat is loaded and they can go and sell their catch since early morning the votes have been arriving that buy the seed oysters from the toners the toners as soon as they have a load head for these boats which are called by boats because they buy the seed oysters from the Tongans when the Tong heirs reach a by boat each awaits his turn to unload the bucket which carries the oysters aboard the oyster bushel almost twice as large as the bushel measure used for corn or grain at the by boat two tours unload at once one on one side the other on the other as each bushel swings up the by boat tally man is there to check it off on his tally board the number of bushels each boat unloads is tallied against it so that each will receive the exact payment for the hundred or 150 bushels it brings by boat loads of seed oysters like these are taken and put back planted in other Virginia waters hence the name seed oysters for just like seeds they can be planted and left to grow seed oysters will only live about a week out of water so buy boats try to get them planted as soon as possible the markings on this map show the general areas where on private grounds seed oysters are planted private grounds today are those areas of the rivers and Chesapeake Bay where in the 1890s a government survey showed no oysters were growing since then these areas have been leased to Virginia residents usually at $1 a year per acre buy boats plant seed oysters on the private grounds leased in the rivers and along the western shore of Chesapeake Bay planting is done from October to June but is heaviest in the fall when seed oysters are most plentiful saplings in the water often marked boundaries of leased areas the boat travels back and forth in order to plant the whole area thoroughly planting is done by shoveling the oysters overboard the men scatter each shovelful as much as they can this scattering separates the oysters as they fall and when they reach the water they sink down over a wide area once planted seed oysters are left for three or more years until they have grown to market size then they are brought up by the dredges of the operators dredge boat winch power hoists the dredge to the deck hand power empties it then the empty dredge goes back to scrape the oysters from the bottom as the moving boat drags it along quickly the crew cleared the deck space where the oysters are dumped for when the boat turns a second dredge on the opposite side from the first will be raised a row of teeth in the heavy metal frame scrape the oysters into the thick mesh bag raising and dumping the dredges alternately the dredge boat travels back and forth bringing up the market size Oh stirs which as seed oysters were planted on the least area only a few years before dredge boats are often large when extensive private grounds are located in the wider sections of the rivers or out in the bay one or two even have four dredges working at once two on either side but on these larger boats the method is the same as on the smaller ones today these private grounds produce four out of every five eating oysters marketed by Virginia quite small dredge boats work the many shallow inlets on the Atlantic side of the Eastern Shore here the area's dredged are small and the boats make frequent turns the dredges also are quite small and are raised by hand when the boat is making the turn to go back over the area though small these boats also have two dredges raised altar just as you saw on the larger boats Oceanside oysters chief among them the famous Chincoteague oyster are more irregular in shape than those taken from other virginia waters oceanside oysters have a salty flavor all which to their liking and dredging for them goes on through the oyster season from October to May dredge boats take their catches to oyster processing plants on shore Virginia has over 70 of these plants for oysters are the state's leading seafood product at the plants the piles of shells removed in the processing grow higher and higher as the season advances in the spring most of these piles of empty shells are pulled down they are loaded onto barges or else are carried on boats back to the rivers and the bay here from the moving boat they are sent back to the bottom where they provide couch the hard material baby oysters must settle on if they are to survive for mud soon smothers them to death yearly the state puts back thousands of tons of Cultch a conservation measure to ensure continued production from those areas where that survey of the 1890s found oysters growing these areas were then declared and still are public rocks and any Virginia resident who has at honors license may Tong here in season hundreds of individual tours like these work the public rocks each year from October through April and account for one out of every five market oysters sold in Virginia in the deeper waters of the rivers and Bay you'll sometimes see something that looks like a Cultch operation but really isn't quite that these shells are being put back by private Raiders to cover the muddy bottom of leased areas so that when seed oysters are planted they will have the hard surface they need on which to grow then after three or more years dredge boats can come and take up healthy oysters of market size everywhere in these deeper waters winter dredging goes on when you see barrels on the deck of a dredge boat you know it is not dredging for oysters but is dredging blue crabs blue crabs and this one is of average size are caught in enormous numbers in Chesapeake Bay which in fact yields two-thirds of all the blue crabs taken on the Atlantic coast with Virginia because crab migrations in the bay especially favored her returning almost half of the total national blue crab production most crabs hatch in the lower part of the bay during the summer shortly thereafter they begin to move up the bay and into the rivers when cold weather comes most settled down where they are but the females from whose eggs the next year's young will be hatched move offshore and congregate in deeper water here they remain inactive on the bottom during the winter and dredging goes on here from December until spring crab dredge boats like those that take up Auster's have two dredges raised and emptied in the same way you saw on the oyster dredge boats the crab dredge itself however is of lighter construction than that used for oysters but like all dredges requires strong chains to haul it over the bottom as soon as the dredge is again overboard the crabs are collecting [Music] seaweed generally comes up with the crabs the crabs are emptied into barrels the barrel is a standard measure for crabs and dredging continues until the boat has its load or it is time to start for the processing house on shore as the water in the shallower stretches of the rivers and along the shores of the bay begins to warm male and female crabs hatched the previous summer leave the places where they have wintered and resume their migration up the shore while adult females head for the lower Bay where this year they will spawn when early in the season these migrations start the crab potters are ready for the crabs moving up and down the rivers and out into the bay scrap fish from wholesale dealers on shore is the crab bait bought by the Potter and carried to his boat [Music] mate barrel full the Potter is off to where he has set his pots the square wire cage is a crab pot bait goes into a cylindrical compartment which will be on the bottom when the pot is set and a wire cover secures it then the baited pot is set by throwing it overboard each boat has from 50 to 100 pots set and hauls them one after another pots are made of chicken wire crabs rarely get out again through the funnel by which they entered and remain caught until shaken out into the boats catch rebated the pot is set again the settings so timed that the boat is near where another pot has been set and is ready to be hauled aboard set pots are marked by cork floats at the end of the lines by which they are hauled these floats are easily spotted by the Potter as his boat moves over his crabbing area when a float is within reach he hooks its line and hauls up the pot [Music] here you see how the pot is opened to release the craft [Music] more than 50,000 pots like this in season dump crabs into the boats of Virginia Potter's crab putters like these take over half of the 30 to 50 million pounds of blue crabs caught yearly in Virginia waters on the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay enormous numbers of young crabs each spring migrate to the shallow waters around Tangier Island Tangier has become one of the biggest soft-shell crab centers in the world a soft-shell crab is one that has just shed its hard outer shell shedding is the way crabs grow and they may do this more than 20 times during the first year of their life softshell crabs can be eaten in their entirety and are considered a seafood delicacy and the market for them is large they are caught in Tangier waters by some 100 specialized boats during spring and summer [Music] in these shallow waters the gear used is a small hand dredge in these shallow waters the gear used is a small hand dredge called a crab scrapes each boat drags two scrapes they are raised by hand and emptied in the same way you saw done on the larger dredges used in deep water winter crabby [Music] the scrapes always bring up quantities of eelgrass which grows abundantly here countless thousands of crabs are attracted by the ideal living and feeding conditions eel grass affords them the crabs sorted the eel grass goes back into the water after each scrape is emptied the catch is sorted according to shell condition and each goes into the proper container aboard the boat in the early afternoon most of the boats are on the way back to Tangier in the Tangier Harbor are a number of shedding houses the establishments which handle and ship the crabs the water areas these enclose are known as pounds and in them are the crab floats usually about 75 1/2 in use half drying on the rags to the pounds the crabbers come with air catches [Music] baskets of crabs from the boats go to the sorter on the deck of the pound the degree of color showing around the legs tells the sorter how soon the crab will shed and he tosses it into the particular float which contains crabs that will be shedding at about the same time other pound employees go to the floats of previously sorted crabs that are shedding that day and dip out all those that are now in the soft shell state the boxes of softshell crabs are brought to the deck and carried off at once to be packed and shipped away to distant markets along the shores and up the rivers on the western side of the bay the crab migration is also heavy during spring and summer here especially in the pike tank and Rappahannock rivers soft-shell crab with hundreds of fight Nets the Fikes long fence like hedging runs out from shore to block the path of the crabs and lead them along it to the trap at its further end the fight operator comes daily to collect the crabs [Music] once a crab has gotten into the trap it seldom finds the funnel opening by which it entered [Music] traps are light easily handled by one man emptied all it is necessary is to set the trap back in place many fight operators have their own small towns they distribute their catch among the floats according to when the crabs will be shedding and ready for market the marked areas on this map show where another method of catching crabs occurs the patent dip trotline several hundred of these are operated during the summer and also in the fall when many crabs are migrating to deeper waters as in most crabbing operations patent dip boats move back and forth over a given course marked for them by two bright colored boys - which are attached the ends of a quarter to half mile long baited line the patent dip mechanism is at the side of the boat towards the front it is raised by ropes and pulleys until the dip net in which the crabs are collected is brought into a position where it can easily be emptied into the boats barrels the empty dip is then lowered into the water and the crapper is ready as soon as the boy appears to hook the trap line attached to it and drop this between the dips prongs the crabber watches to make sure the baited line is passing between the prongs and the crabs dropping off into the net the crabber is ready to raise the dip when the end of the trap line is reached and to lift off the line then he finishes raising the dip and adds the crabs to his day's catch patent dip boats bring in their crab catches to the processing plants from late spring through summer and far into the fall at these seasons the crab Potter's caches are coming in - in the wintertime dredgers bring in most of the crabs starting early in December and continuing throughout the colder months in these colder months boosters also are in season and oyster dredge boats are bringing in their catches thus the whole year round Virginia plants are processing one or another shellfish and are supplying on the national level one-fifth of all the oysters and almost half of all the blue crabs marketed in the United States today [Music]