State Oyster Industry Already Large, Offers Unlimited Possibilities

The Virginia seafood industry, of which Franklin City, Wachapreague, Willis Wharf, Oyster, Cape Charles, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Newport News, Hampton and Pheobus are the principal markets and shipping points, is probably second only to agricultural pursuits. We will deal first with the oyster, which is thought by many to be the most important branch of this industry.

The oyster is one of the most valuable of all the fisheries, with an annual yield in the United States of approximately 30 or more millions of bushels, and Virginia furnishes probably 20 per cent of the entire output of the country. Every coastal state from Massachusetts to southern Texas, and from Washington to California has this industry, though Maine and New Hampshire can boast of only a few. It is recognized that the seaside of the Eastern Shore and the Chesapeake Bay country is the greatest oyster producing territory in the world. Nature provides Virginia alone with oyster spat sufficient to supply the entire country, if they could all be saved. Every old iron hulk that has been sunk in the lower Chesapeake Bay is literally covered with oysters, inside and out. They will catch on any old rubbish, old scrap tin and iron, brick bats, old rubber boots, glass bottles, stone jugs or most anything that is clean and hard enough to receive the spat. No other place, so far as we know, offers such inducements to oyster growers. Some other states are experimenting scientifically to secure the spat and are meeting with some success. They may some day make it commercially valuable.

300,000 Acres Idle

Virginia has about 240,000 acres of producing bottom, or natural rock, and 400,000 acres of non-producing or planting bottom, of which latter probably not more than a fourth is in demand or leased, leaving approximately 300,000 acres idle. Much of this bottom would be producing if shells were planted, and we feel assured that the industry can be more thoroughly developed in Virginia.

There is an abundant supply of oysters on the rocks in the James, Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers. Many of these in the James and upper Potomac are too small for the shucking trade, but if the three-inch cull law is enforced the smaller ones would be left on the rocks, which would mean better oysters at present and more for the future. This seems to me as necessary, as there is little young strike perceptible today on the lower rocks of the James. Our laws are good, with few exceptions, as regards fish, oysters and crabs.

There are in Norfolk and Portsmouth 12 or more wholesale packing houses, some of which handle both oysters and fish. On the Eastern Shore there are more than 100 oyster packing plants. While the outward appearances of some of these houses is unsightly and not a credit to the industry, the interior has been so renovated and modernized that someone -- it may be the Health and Food Departments or packers, or perhaps all of them -- should be complimented. All of the stalls have concrete bottoms and are kept clean. The shucking and packing departments are kept clean and are quipped with hot and cold water systems, liquid soap and towels. No oysters are allowed to be used other than those taken from waters declared free from pollution by the Federal and State authorities.

Guard Polluted Spots

Any polluted territories are closed by Federal authority and policed by the Virginia Commission of Fisheries' forces. Oysters are shucked as clean as is practicable for them to be, and washed with the more modern devices that are to be had -- not over-washed or bloated. They are packed in new one-gallon sterilized cans, solid meat. When you buy a gallon you get all that the measure will hold. These cans are then packed for shipment in sugar barrels or boxes and iced around the cans. The weather having been rather warm up to this time orders have not been as large as were expected, and being yet early in the season we can not forecast the results for this season. But the outlook is good, raw material being plentiful and conditions and equipment much improved. Also the confidence of the public has been restored after having been shaken by an attack made in the West on the oyster and paralyzing the Industry, with no good cause.

The condition of Virginia's oyster division, taken from the commissioner's last report (1923), shows an approximate value of the output of oysters from natural rocks of $2,400,000, and from private planting ground, $1,000,000; from fish, crabs, clams, etc., $7,000,000. The number of men employed in the industry is 15,000, and the number of men partly employed or dependent on the industry is 60,000. The average period of employment of all the industries is five and one-half months.

6,500 Licensed Nets

The finny fish industry in Virginia may be even more valuable and important than any other known branch of the industry. We have approximately 6,500 licensed nets in Virginia, and while some varieties, such as shad, herring, sheepshead, sturgeon, and probably a few other species, including menhaden, are not as plentiful as in former years, we still have a great variety of as good fish as can likely be found anywhere, such as mackerel, bluefish, hogfish, butterfish, grey and speckled trout, rock, perch, bass and spots, the kind that are famous all over this country and can not be excelled anywhere.

The old hard-header croaker, very few of which were found in Virginia waters many years ago and thought very little of, are now very plentiful at times and are probably more in demand, being better in size and quality than ever before.

There are more varieties of fish than we have space to mention, and Norfolk and Portsmouth are kept well supplied with a good variety and doing good business.

Crab Industry Third.

The next is importance is the crab industry. Hampton is the stronghold of this industry, although we have in Norfolk and Portsmouth four or probably more plants where crab meat is prepared for market, not to mention many others that are scattered all about Tidewater Virginia. Crab meat is no mean article of food and is much larger and more important business than many think. It was thought by many a few months ago that as crabs were so scarce in our waters nearby, very few, and none but the wealthy would be able to eat crab meat. They were selling very high, around $12 a barrel, but it has developed that we still have an abundance of crabs and they have sold as low as $1 a barrel recently. The crab, like some other water products, has lean periods and plentiful periods.

Our markets are usually supplied with the soft crab in season, but as a rule they sell high, around $1.50 a dozen, owing perhaps, to the increase consumption and demand in the North. Crisfield, Md., is the soft crab market, as the crab sheds mostly in that part of the Chesapeake Bay -- Northern Virginia and Southern Maryland. Like the oyster and fish packing houses, so it is with the crab packing houses; they are scattered about Tidewater sections in a small way.

The clam industry is the smaller of the combination. Many years ago it was very insignificant in Hampton Roads waters. There were very few to be had, with prices so low that it did not pay to bother with them; but now they are more plentiful and the business has increased many fold, as has also the price. They are always sold by the hundreds or thousands, and not by measure unless shucked. Clams are in season the year around and are sold in summer more than the oyster. While the industry is not a great one in Virginia. The State derives considerable revue from it. Chincoteague is the largest clam market on the Atlantic Seaboard.