The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 88, July 1984 - April, 1985 Page: 46
476 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Sea turtles appear in descriptions of aboriginal Indian life, customs,
and dress. The coast-dwelling Karankawa Indians hunted waterfowl
and feasted on venison, oysters, fish, and turtles, which were "either
boiled in rude earthen pots or roasted in the ashes of their fire." Eth-
nologist Albert S. Gatschet noted that the Karankawas hunted birds
and fish with bows and arrows; "the great green turtle, hai'tnlkn,
often 31/2 feet long, was brought by them to the shore alive and then
killed and eaten."8
By the 184os the Karankawa population had been annihilated, and
Anglo-American settlers had begun to tap the seemingly limitless sup-
ply of game, fish, and oysters. Turtles, too, became objects of local
commerce during slack agricultural times, as even farmers joined in
catching them. Immigrant fishermen from the Mediterranean region
were also established on the Texas coast.9
By 188o, Stearns's pioneering survey revealed, the Texas catch
lagged behind that of other Gulf states, accounting for 16 percent by
weight and 10.5 percent in value to fishermen of all marine products.
Altogether 491 fishermen, of whom 291 were employed in this oc-
cupation full-time, plied Texas bays and inshore waters seeking red-
fish, sheepshead, sea trout, mullet, croakers, and, the most important
catch, oysters. These men, however, made up merely 12 percent of the
Gulf's fisherfolk, and they operated only 13 percent of its small-craft
fishing fleet-167 boats equipped with 42 seines, each averaging 5 feet
in depth and about 100oo fathoms in length. Texas fishermen preferred
bay seines over beach seines or gill nets, which predatory fish emptied
and destroyed, and had no organized vessel or open-sea fishery. Many
of these fishermen worked out of Galveston or Houston; some worked
from Indianola and sent catches twice weekly by steamer to Galves-
ton's fish and oyster dealers.'x
In 188o, 24,000 pounds of green turtle was landed in Texas, an
amount that was below the crab catch by more than lo,ooo pounds
and equaled only about 4 percent of the state's oyster catch (in excess
sCharles A. Hammond, "The Carancahua Tribe of Indians," Peabody Museum of
American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard Unsverszty, Papers, Vol. I, 2 (Cambridge,
Mass., 1891; reprint ed., New York, 1971), 75 (ist quotation); Albert S. Gatschet, "The
Karankawa Indians," ibid., 122.
sThe high proportion of foreign-born fishermen in the latter part of the century was
noted in two government reports: Stearns, "Fisheries of the Gulf of Mexico," 583, 585,
and Charles H. Stevenson, "Report on the Coast Fisheries of Texas," United States Com-
mission of Fish and Fisheries, Report of the Commissioner for 1889 to 1891. [From July I,
1889, to June 3o, 189z.] (Washington, D.C., 1893), 375.
loStearns, "Fisheries of the Gulf of Mexico," 535-536, 582-585.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 88, July 1984 - April, 1985, periodical, 1984/1985; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101210/m1/68/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.