In 1868 George W. Miles started a new business on Charles Island. He leased part of Charles Island and started a plant to process Menhaden (Bunkers) into fish oil and fertilizer. The Miles Company received worldwide acclaim for the quality of its oil. Nevertheless, after a time its hours of operation came under town jurisdiction; the reason being that the smell from the plant permeated the shore and disgruntled nearby citizens.
In 1972 there was a battle between commercial fishermen and sports fishermen. Christopher Scanlon in a feature article from the August 12th edition of the Milford Citizen described a battle for "Bunkers" or Menhaden. Bunkers have been in our waters before the settlers purchased Milford from the Indians. There was a law playing out in court about how close to shore a commercial fishing boat could come. On Tuesday, August 7 a bunker boat, "Tideland," out of New Jersey came within a half-mile of Milford's beaches. From 5 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. it netted 800,000 bunkers. It then moved further down the coast. Some local fishermen claimed that the bunker population never recovered.
Photo courtesy of Milford Historical Society
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