Forest and Stream, March 26, 1891

THE OYSTER PROBLEM.

Natural resources -- Conservation - ResourcesSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : BaysideSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : PlantingSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : Yield

THE evident and alarming decrease of the yield of the oyster beds of Chesapeake Bay, recently emphasized by the removal by nineteen oyster packing firms of the whole or a part of their plant to other localities, led to an important meeting of parties interested in the subject in Baltimore on the evening of March 18.

At this meeting Mayor Davidson presided, and addresses were delivered by Prof. W. K. Brooks, of Johns Hopkins University; Marshal McDonald, U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries; Hon. John K. Cowen and Col. Thomas S. Hodson, of Crisfield. Prof. Brooks, twelve years ago, warned the State authorities that the extermination of the oyster by injurious methods of fishing and lack of suitable protection was imminent. The small yield of 3,000,000 bushels of oysters in 1890 as compared with the output of 17,000,000 bushels in 1875 is sufficient evidence of the soundness of Prof. Brooks's prediction.

In the course of the addresses it was shown that the oyster industry of Chesapeake Bay involves an outlay, for wages, labels, boxes and transportation, of about $3,000,000 annually, this not including the cost of the oysters. It is safe to assume that the value of the oysters, together with the cost of putting them on the market, will represent a sum not less than $4,500,00 to $5,000,000.

Prof. Brooks estimates that since the establishment of the oyster packing industry fully 400,000,000 bushels of wild oysters have been taken from the waters of Chesapeake Bay. This magnificent resource, however, is threatened with complete destruction unless speedy measures be taken to arrest the decline and foster the growth of the industry. The professor further states that in other countries, where the grounds are much less valuable, they have by cultivation been made to produce oysters at a rate per acre which in our superior waters would bring the annual yield far above the entire harvest so far gathered by the packers of Maryland and Virginia.

There was perfect agreement among the parties interested in the Chesapeake oyster as to the need of prompt action, and this agreement found expression in a series of resolutions calling attention to the threatened destruction of the oyster beds under present conditions, with the consequent throwing out of employment of thousands of workmen, and a greater injury to the people of Maryland engaged in allied industries. This threatened extinction is charged to the want of legislative encouragement of artificial propagation, and stress is laid upon the necessity of selling or leasing to individuals certain portions of the beds, for the experiment of oyster rearing. The desirability of State supervision of oyster grounds has been demonstrated in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, as well as in Massachusetts and New York, and particularly in Connecticut, where the natural beds are reserved for public use, but all other waters capable of producing oysters are sold to individuals, whose vested rights are amply protected and hence enjoyed without molestation. As an illustration of the practical working of this plan it is stated that the oyster crop has quadrupled in Connecticut in the last decade.

Some experiments have been made by the U. S. Fish Commission in the artificial culture of oysters, but so far without demonstrating methods which are entirely practical and satisfactory. We understand that the subject will continue to receive diligent attention, and, in addition to this, the methods of rearing oysters in artificial basins, so successfully practiced in certain parts of Europe, and especially in France, will be studied in detail, with a view to utilizing the information in behalf of the oyster industries of the United States.