Nemasket River Herring by Michael J. Maddigan

Author:Michael J. Maddigan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-16T16:00:00+00:00

The Nemasket River was once described as so “thick” with herring that one could walk across on the fishes’ backs. Photograph by Michael J. Maddigan .

1854

The catch in this year exceeded that of the previous two or three years. “Somedays 15,000 to 20,000 have been taken.” Although the Namasket Gazette reported that some 200,000 herring had been caught during the 1854 season, the commonwealth reported a far higher catch: 350,000, valued at $1,800.

1855

The first herring of the 1855 season were noted at noon on April 9. “Some three or four thousand were taken at the Muttock works during the afternoon…. They are thought to be of a larger size than usual.” On Monday, April 23, 1855, 24,000 fish were taken, 23,400 the following day and 29,300 on Wednesday (of which 20,000 were taken at the Upper Factory), making a total of 96,700 within a week’s time. “Somedays they have been very abundant, 75 or 100 being taken at a single scoop of the net.”

1856

April 28: sixteen thousand taken at Muttock; April 29: twenty-two thousand taken at Muttock; April 30: twelve thousand taken at Muttock. Despite these numbers, the Namasket Gazette asserted that “the prospect is not good for a large supply of this kind of fish, the present season.”

1857

“About two hundred and twenty-five thousand herrings have been taken at the weirs in this town the present season, valued at $1125. Forty thousand a day are sometimes taken when there is an extra run.”

1860

73,768 taken.

1862

Undoubtedly a banner year. The Taunton Gazette reported:

There has been nothing like the quantity of herrings in Taunton river, during any year for the last fifteen years. They are literally too abundant. We hear that in the seine near East Taunton as many as sixty thousand have been taken at one sweep; and on one occasion within a week the owner of the privilege was compelled to load the herrings into his carts and use them for the purpose of enriching his land .

Several thousand were thus disposed of. We do not learn that the catch of shad is much in excess of former years; but of herrings there is a surplus .

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.