12^6 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



(3) That it was practically impossible to establish an 

 efficient system of protection on our public oyster beds. 



And therefore we came to the conclusion that the best 

 course that could be adopted was to abolish all the delusive 

 and vexatious regulations which were in force, and to see 

 what could be done by giving such rights of property in 

 parts of our shores favourable to oyster culture as would 

 encourage competent persons to invest their money in that 

 undertaking. 1 



1 " We have made diligent inquiry into the condition of the 

 oyster fisheries, and have devoted a large section of our report to the 

 discussion of the evidence which we have obtained. We find : 



" That the supply of oysters has very greatly fallen off during the 

 last three or four years. 



"That this decrease has not arisen from over-fishing, nor from 

 any causes over which man has direct control, but from the very 

 general failure of the spat or young of the oyster, which appears, during 

 the years in question, to have been destroyed soon after it was pro- 

 duced. A similar failure of spat has frequently happened before, and 

 probably will often happen again. 



"That the best mode of providing against these periodical failures 

 of the spat is to facilitate the proceedings of those individuals or com- 

 panies, who may desire to acquire so much property in favourably situ- 

 ated portions of the sea-bottom, as may suffice to enable them safely to 

 invest capital in preparing and preserving these portions of the sea- 

 bottom for oyster culture. By which term ' oyster culture ' is implied, 

 not the artificial breeding of oysters in the manner in which salmon are 

 bred artificially, but the collection of the brood in years when that 

 brood is plentiful, and its preservation by the application of due skill 

 and care as a source of supply during the years when the spat fails a 

 process in vogue among British fishermen from time immemorial. 



" That no regulations or restrictions upon oyster fishing, beyond 

 such as may be needed for the object just defined, have had or are 

 likely to have any beneficial effect upon the supply of the oysters." 

 Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Sea Fisheries 

 of the United Kingdom, 1866. 



