“As for fish, both of fresh and salt water, of shellfish, and others, no country can boast of more variety, greater plenty, or better in their several kinds.”

- Robert Beverley, 1705

a vintage illustration of a sturgeon

“In going down to Jamestown on board of a sloop, a sturgeon sprang out of the river, into the sloop. We killed it, and it was eight feet long.”

–David De Vries, 1630s 

These enormous fish were both food and treasure to the settlers, for caviar and isinglass (obtained from the fish’s air bladders) were valuable commodities in England.

a vintage illustration of a stingray

“There is also a fish called a stingray, which resembles a skate, only one side of his tail grows out a sharp bone like a bodkin about four or five inches long, with which he sticks and wounds other fish and then preys upon them.”

– Thomas Glover, 1676 

Captain John Smith was so badly injured by a stingray that his men dug his grave on the beach where the incident occurred. Fortunately, Smith recovered and feasted with his comrades upon the stingray.

NPS Image

In artist Sydney King's sketch, Jamestown settlers harvest oysters.

“Oysters there be in whole banks and beds, and those of the best I have seen some thirteen inches long.”

– William Strachey, 1609 - 1610 

In addition to the tasty meat and the possibility of a pearl, English settlers prized the oyster’s shell as well. Oyster shell provided lime for whitewashing clapboard buildings, early iron manufactory and sweet-smelling privies. Oyster shell could be used for paths and roadbeds and also was needed for the manufacture of mortar.