A Report upon the Mollusk Fisheries of MassachusettsMassachusetts. Commissioners on Fisheries and Game
Science
A Report upon the Mollusk Fisheries of Massachusetts
Massachusetts. Commissioners on Fisheries and Game
Shellfish fisheries -- Massachusetts
There is practically no quahaug industry in Falmouth. Hardly 100
bushels are dug annually, and those only for home consumption. A few
quahaugs are perhaps shipped by the oystermen.
This town, with its numerous inlets, bays and brackish water ponds,
offers perhaps as fine an opportunity for shellfish culture, especially
for quahaugs, as exists in Massachusetts. There is no reason why the
water of Waquoit Bay and the other brackish ponds should not produce a
great supply of quahaugs, if properly worked.
Quahaugs are found mostly in scattering quantities over a large area in
Waquoit Bay and in small quantities on the north and west side of Great
Pond, comprising a total of nearly 400 acres. Not all this ground,
which is the greater part mud, is capable of producing quahaugs, but
many parts could produce good harvests. On the bay side of the town
small patches of good quahaugs are found at North Falmouth, Squeteague
Pond, West Falmouth harbor on the southeast side, and a few are found
in Hadley harbor, Naushon. These, together with the small patches
in Great Pond, comprise about 1 acre of good quahaug ground, and are
mostly dug by summer people.
In the past twenty-five years there has been a great decline in the
quahaug industry, especially in Waquoit Bay, which to-day barely
produces 50 bushels. A. Howard Clark states, in 1879:[7]--
Quahaugs are plenty in Waquoit Bay, and are gathered and eaten
by the villagers, but none are shipped. It is estimated that
about 500 bushels of quahaugs are annually consumed by the
people of Falmouth town.
SUMMARY OF INDUSTRY.
Area of quahaug territory (acres), 400
Number of men, --
Number of boats, --
Value of boats, --
Number of dories, --
Value of dories, --
Value of implements, --
_Production._
"Little necks":--
Bushels, 10
Value, $25
Quahaugs:--
Bushels, 90
Value, $90
Total:--
Bushels, 100
Value, $115
_Harwich._
The quahaug fishery of the town of Harwich is carried on in that part
of Pleasant Bay which lies within the town limits. In the southern
waters of the town, on the Sound side, scattering quahaugs are found
in certain localities, but are not of any commercial importance. The
most important of those localities are off Dean's Creek and in Herring
River, where quahaugs are dug for home consumption.
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