From the earliest days of settlement on eastern Long Island, menhaden, known locally as "bunker," has played an important part in the lives of its residents. Whether cooked and eaten or spread over and plowed into fields as fertilizer, the fish has been ever present in the daily lives of residents - until recently. The menhaden industry once had factories that lined the shores of the North Fork, but none remain today. From the early 19th century and until the tail end of the 1960s, the fish were hunted, caught, and processed for their valuable oil. Many local residents made all or part of their living from the processing of menhaden. Munnawhatteaug: The Last Days of the Menhaden Industry on Eastern Long Island offers an important historical overview of the industry and its local impact, and reveals its inner workings. It features nearly two hundred images taken in 1963 by local photographer Peter Stevens that document nearly every aspect of a typical menhaden fishing expedition of the period. The images provide a permanent record of a now vanished way of life in a way that plain text cannot. Munnawhatteaug: The Last Days of the Menhaden Industry on Eastern Long Island is a must for those interested in learning more about this important aspect of local and regional history.
