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National Geographic : 1947 Mar
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The National Geographic Magazine Many Nets in the Hudson Measure 1,200 Feet in Length Near Edgewater, on the New Jersey bank, fishermen mend rents caused by snagging and by the careless keels of boats in New York's busy harbor. Into the 5/-inch mesh of the gill nets come many things besides fish-even corpses, on occasion. During the seven or eight weeks of the annual shad run, the rivermen work day and night to keep their nets mended and set while the silvery bonanza lasts. put the shad back on the table in its own right, rather than simply as the producer of eggs, or roe, which had long been eaten as a delicacy (page 371). Not always were the roe thus esteemed, however, for sometimes in the ups and downs of this fish, Alosa sapidissima, the roe were thrown away and only the flesh eaten. This was during the last century, when the Hud son's shad were famous as North River shad. Beginning in the Sacramento River in 1871, shad from the Hudson were propagated in Pacific coast streams. Nowadays, considerable quantities are shipped east to compete in higher-price eastern markets. Fulton Market Prices in "Shillings" The marketing of shad is a story in itself. By the time the Hudson's run is finished, about June 1, Fulton Market has received fresh shad from a dozen States. Most of it arrives by truck. The Hudson's come by ferry or tunnel to Manhattan, and those from distant rivers arrive in huge refrigerator trailers that dash day and night to the rich New York Philadelphia area where a large part of the country's shad is consumed. There are two or three shad fishermen of the Hudson who still prefer the old way of taking their catches to market. They sail their skiffs to the foot of Fulton Street and weigh out their shad at the market instead of unloading 100-pound boxes of the fish from trucks. Numerically, the bucks and the roes are about equal in an average marketing, but by weight the roes approximate two-thirds of the total. (A single female produces 25,000 to 30,000 eggs.) Even more curious than the taking of fish to market by boat through the busy New York Harbor of 1947 is the Fulton Market dealers' continued use of the "shilling" (122 cents) as a convenience in quoting prices. But it's no wonder. With the one important exception of carrying most of the fish to market by motor truck, the whole shadding operation along the Hudson is a pleasant anachronism. Amid the abandonment of old ferries, excursion lines, and other features, the two months' scenes of picturesque activity retain, perhaps, more suggestion of the old distinctive river life than anything else to be seen today. 376
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