Today oysters are a large part of local commercial and recreational fishery with an estimated $62 million worth of North Carolina oysters sold each year. It’s the sounds, marshlands, and estuarine rivers that provide a great habitat for both oyster farms and wild oyster reefs. The Wilmington and Cape Fear coastline has the perfect natural environment for farming and raising oysters. These two different methods of oyster procurement actually created division amongst the locals and out-of-town oyster companies, which eventually led to an armed conflict and what is now known as the Oyster War of 1891. In most cases the dredging of the deep sea oysters was conducted by out-of-town companies and individuals from up and down the eastern seaboard. Oysters grown in Wilmington were either harvested in the shallow waters of the local sounds and estuaries with tongs or harvested in deep water with powered dredges which dug them up from the sea floor. In fact in the 1800s, carolinians traded bushels of oysters for supplies and they were a common trade in Wilmington during that time.Īfter the end of the Civil War the popularity of oysters grew even more and were typically sold for cash in local markets and canneries, know as “oyster houses” were setup to supply the northeastern markets with North Carolina sea oysters. These natural delicacies were once a core food source for Native Americans and played a major role in colonial time, contributing to the local community. The waters of Coastal North Carolina are plentiful with oysters.
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