Mar 1, 2000

A Stitch in Time: Netmaking is Becoming a Lost Art

Each day, the family practices the time-honored craft of netmaking at Harris Net Shop in Atlantic. The work is tedious and precise, requiring the hand sewing of each net. Harris has callouses on his hands from more than 30 years of stitching nets.

Mar 1, 2000

THE FATE OF A FISHERY: Shad and River Herring at the Turn of the 21st Century

The sun has hardly risen over the Chowan River, but Herbert Byrum, his brother Bobby and crewman Hazel Rountree are already knee-deep in fish. River water, slime and silvery fish scales wash around their boats as they dip more wriggling bodies from the shrinking confines of the pound net — 40 pounds of fish per dip. When it’s full from gunwale to gunwale, their skiff holds about 4,000 pounds of river herring. The other fish — striped bass, perch, and catfish — to back over the side.