Production.
| "Little necks":— | |
| Bushels, | 303 |
| Value, | $1,310 |
| Quahaugs:— | |
| Bushels, | 5,991 |
| Value, | $7,177 |
| Total:— | |
| Bushels, | 6,294 |
| Value, | $8,487 |
New Bedford.
The quahaug industry of New Bedford was practically annihilated by the law of 1905, which closed the Acushnet River and Clark's Cove to both clammer and quahauger. Good beds of quahaugs, particularly "little necks," exist in both these waters, but can be taken only for bait. As several sewers run into the Acushnet River, and the public health was endangered by the consumption as food of the quahaugs taken from the river and the waters near its mouth, nearly 400 acres of quahaug territory were closed by the State Board of Health. What little available territory there is outside the prescribed area, off Clark's Point, is free to all.
A license is required to dig quahaugs for bait in this territory, and such is issued free of charge. The maximum amount permitted to be dug is 2 bushels per week of clams or quahaugs, or of both. Some 320 permits have been issued since the law was passed, in 1905. Eleven of these have been since revoked for unlawful conduct on the part of the possessors. For the first offence the license is merely revoked, for the second a fine of $10, and for the third $100 is imposed.
Orleans.
Although Orleans is well represented by all four main types of shellfish, the quahaug fishery is the leading industry of the town. A favorable coast line, fronting on the west the waters of Cape Cod Bay and bounded on the east by Pleasant Bay, provides excellent facilities for the quahaug fishery.
The main quahauging territory is in Cape Cod Bay. While the west coast of Orleans is only about a mile long, the privileges which allow the citizens of Orleans free fishing in Eastham waters, according to the act of incorporation in 1792, "whereby the benefits of the shellfishery were to be mutually shared," opens up an extensive tract of quahaug territory, from 2 to 3 miles in width, extending north as far as Billingsgate Island and the Wellfleet line. The actual Orleans quahaug territory consists only of 1,000 acres, which furnish but poor quahauging, while the water is several fathoms deep.
On the east side an entirely different condition prevails. Here in the waters of Pleasant Bay is a bed of quahaugs which, though worked for a long time, is still in excellent condition. The proportion of "little necks" is larger than on the west side, running about one-half the entire catch; neither is the water as deep here, rarely having a greater depth than 12 feet, and by no means as rough as the more exposed waters of Cape Cod Bay. The quahauging grounds here comprise 500 acres.
Although there are 1,500 acres of quahaug territory in the town of Orleans, only a small part of this is commercially productive, and the larger part of the fishery is carried on in Eastham waters.