24

CAPE MAY COUNTY MAGAZINE 79 JUNE '83

K

Pound Fishing: We Used to Fill That Boat in An Flour and a Half

(ED NOTE Following is excerpted /rorrt on interview with Pasquale R LaR'ina ofSed Lie City, one ofasries con ductrji by Dr Thomas Chcllus of Atlantic Community College and Cape May County marine agent Stewart Tweed as research far a history of the county's fishing industry f / Inu-rv irwrr; Mpw lonf( have you hern involved with commerrial fishing? UKosa Well I was involved from 1945 ' to 1965 I worked with my father. I Was he a native or did he come from Italy? I, No. he came from the other side and he migrated from Italy here to Philadelphia, and he did none of that type of work He and a group of fellows got together and bought this company out this fish pound company out here in Sea Isle City I: What is fish pound? L Well, it s a stationary trap in the Atlantic (Kean A piling pumped into the bottom of the ocean bed And it's a-75-foot oak piling with a 14 to-16-inch butt pumped in with the big part down These are plae ed m v strategic positions to hold a net there's net hung in between these

poles and they lead the fish to this big box and they get caught At one time or another, like in the early '50s, there were 150 of these traps along this New Jersey coast It was the single biggest industry in the state They used to catch many, many thousands of tons of fish. I: Were you the only one in Sea Isle? L: There were seven companies here. This type of fishing was the only kind of fishing that really brought in a lot of fish in this state This was a permanent rig and you were at the mercy of the elements I: And is anyone in the area doing it? L: No the only ones that are left are in the RaritanBay They have traps similar to these. noWike these, but similar to it to catch bunkers and porgies and stuff like that, I: Were there any people going out from Cape May? L: Sure Wildwood. All the way down as far as Wildwood. I: But not down in Cape May? L: They never got that far because they fished off the Five Fathom Bank in Wildwood, which is a hell of a fishing area. They still go there for the draggers I: No fishing out of Sea Isle?

L: Well, there is, but the inlet has not been too good and it's easier for them to unpack their fish 'cause Jack Gordon’s out of business now...! was trying to get a grant from the state to rejuvenate, to revitalize the fishing industry in the state of New Jersey. I: Really? < L: Yes. but I could never get to first base because a lot of people didn’t know what I was talking about...I mid facts and figures here, you know, that I ufresented cost-wise. I had everything reaoy to go, and let me tell you something, this type of fishing requires no energy When we were fishing, we used to use cotton dels. It was cotton and cotton rots. We used to treat it with cold tar and pine tar and everything, but it would only last a year because the ocean is very ferocious and the constant movement of the ocean with the nets...they would wear out. But today everything is plastic, you know, and nylon, polyethylene, you know. 1: Does that last? L: Sure, and our rigging that we used to use would only last about two years at the most because we used to use Manilla rope; now you have nylon rope. Once we would put this rig back in the ocean, you wouldn't have to replace it for about five years, and you don't need any energy to go out there because the boat has no function in the fishing. I: Where have you fished while your base of operations was in South Jersey? L: Out in the ocean? A mile and a half .We used to use the Townsends Inlet, the inlet here. And we had our traps stationary, pumped into the bottom of the ocean off of Avalon. I: Oh. not off Sea Isle? L: No, but there were many that were off Sea Isle. They were off 55th St. in Ocean City. and Point Pleasant and Barnegate and all the way up the line. This type of fish we used to patch, you got to imagine that the fish didn’t drown like they do in the drag net. OK. And they weren't squeezed in the back of the net. These fish were alive when they came. They died out of the water and they weren't abused. The dragger fish - he has to drag for about an hour, hour and a half and all that water pressure squashes the belly when we fished, we used to get a nickel to 10 cents a pound more , because the fish would last longer; they would be in better condition. And besides that, we used to leave at five o'clock in the morning By six-thirty, quarter to seven, we were on our way back in I; So you only had an hour and a half? L: We used to fill that boat in an hour and a half and on our way back in By seven-thirty, eight o'clock we were putting those fish under ice By 10 o'clock. II o'clock, they were on the trucks going where they had to go Whereas the draggers. they go out four o'clock in the morn

Pat LaKosa ing and you're lucky if they get back six o'clock at night. I: Well. then. why... L: Why did we stop?...the reason this type of fishing had to end was that after the war, the U.S. government and the state and the county government sprayed DDT in its pure form, it wasn't diluted at all. It was just sprayed from the airplane. . .They killed all the little micro-organisms and all the little marine growths and the shrimps and everything that the fish came to these shores for...plus the dumping of the sewage, the raw sewage and the chemicals from the factories. The Delaware Bay was f i 11hy . . .even the beach was polluted...Delaware Bay influences our waters tremendously because this beach here, from Barnegate to Cape May, is a gentle, sloping beach It's more or less what you’d call a fish sanctuary because the draggers can't come in closer than a mile and a half, and at a mile and a half you only have about 4.15 feet of water The fish are up against the beach . In September and October Especially the butterfish. The butterfish are thick as you can’t believe on this beach You see. we know that they're there because when we were fishing, we used to catch butterfish But we didn't have any market for them in them days. I: Is there a market now ? L: Oh. yeah. There's a market for everything — dollar a pound, dollar and half a pound, you know- You don^t throw nothing away. We used to throw Away 10 times more than we would market in them days 'cause people weren't oriented to eating fish, you know It's a health food now The Catholics used to eat it On Friday and the other people ate it whenever they

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