Fish Miracle

Amazed were greybeard fishermen of Hampstead and Wilmington, N. C., last week, by the fatback '"miracle" of nearby Topsail Inlet. The menhaden, or fatback, is a herring-like fish, not usually eaten but valuable for oil and manure. It grows to about 18 inches, feeds on microscopic sea life, breeds near shore in enormous shoals.

One day last week, fishermen put out in a small boat into Topsail Inlet, a cove varying in width from 1,300 yards to a mile, surrounded by flat, marshy, wind-raked country. Some distance offshore they came on a school of fatbacks so dense that their boat could make no headway. One fisherman plunged an oar into the writhing mass, and as far down as he could reach felt fish. The boat turned back. An onshore wind drove the fish, alive and dead, onto surrounding beaches, until fishermen estimated $300,000 worth had been killed. A. W. King, 65-year-old Hampstead native said: "They completely blocked the channel. There were so many and they were so thick they smothered each other to death. Folks carried off two truckloads of big sharks that were trapped in the run and smothered."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.