can be found from Barnegat Bay, N.J., to Booth- 

 bay Harbor, Me." 



Because of its wide distribution in the new 

 environment, Codium now causes serious impact 

 on local ecology and also creates serious problems 

 on shellfish beds. There is some question, 

 naturally, as to when the first introduction of 

 this algae occurred and how this somewhat un- 

 desirable "immigrant" was brought into our 

 eastern waters. Quinn (1971) quotes Mueller, 

 who, apparently without any evidence, specu- 

 lates that "It was imported on the backs of 

 oysters from Europe and Japan." Since I am 

 responsible for the introduction of the European 

 oyster, Ostrea edulis, into the waters of New 

 England (Loosanoff 1951, 1955), I wish to 

 comment on this matter. 



The European oysters were brought to Long 

 Island Sound in October 1949, when I was the 

 Director of the United States Bureau of Com- 

 mercial Fisheries Biological Laboratory at Mil- 

 ford, Conn. The shipment was comprised of 

 approximately 2 bushels of the mollusks, ranging 

 in age from 1 to 3 yr. They were shipped in a 

 vegetable compartment of a large refrigerator on 

 a Holland-American Line passenger ship and 

 spent about 13 days in transit. 



The introduction of O. edulis was made in 

 accordance with the decision reached after my 

 consultations with members of the shellfish 

 industry, as well as with leading marine biolo- 

 gists of that period, including Paul S. Galtsoff 

 of the United States Bureau of Commercial 

 Fisheries and Thurlow Nelson of Rutgers Uni- 

 versity. Federal authorities approved the impor- 

 tation and the Director of the State of Maine 

 Sea and Shore Fisheries, who was extremely 

 interested in planting European oysters into those 

 waters, gave me a small sum of money to pay 

 for that shipment. The latter fact, obviously, 

 discredits Mueller's statement, quoted by Quinn, 

 that "The oysters were removed from Milford 

 and Woods Hole without permission and intro- 

 duced into local waters." 



In introducing European oysters it was our 

 desire to establish a second commercial species 

 of bivalves in the waters of Maine. At that time 

 only one mollusk, the soft-shell clam, Mya 

 arenaria, was commercially utilized in that 

 region. However, because of extremely heavy mor- 

 tality among the Mya in the mid-1940's, this 

 species became almost extinct for a period of 



several years. As a result, many shore com- 

 munities which depended upon soft-shell clam 

 fisheries were deprived of the chief means of 

 their livelihood. Therefore, it seemed logical to 

 me that a second shellfishery should be de- 

 veloped in those waters, namely that of O. 

 edulis. If successful such a development would 

 enhance the economy of the region. Ostrea edulis 

 was chosen for the cold waters of Maine because, 

 in addition to its high quality as human food, 

 it is able to propagate at a considerably lower 

 temperature than the American oyster, Cras- 

 sostrea virginica. 



In bringing the oysters from Europe, I dealt 

 with my friend, Peter Korringa, who is now 

 Director of the Netherlands Institute for Fishery 

 Investigations. At that time he was already 

 considered one of the world's leading shellfish 

 experts. Being fully aware of the possibility of 

 introducing undesirable exotic species which 

 might accompany the European oyster, our group 

 of American biologists, as well as Korringa, 

 decided to take precautionary measures con- 

 sidered sufficient to prevent such an occurrence. 

 The problem was discussed at great length in 

 correspondence between Korringa and myself, 

 and I still have in my files several of Korringa's 

 letters attesting to this exchange. For example, 

 in his letter of March 1949, Korringa wrote 

 "I can kill any germs in the shell by disinfecting 

 the consignment before shipment." In May of the 

 same year he wrote again "I will disinfect very 

 carefully every oyster we ship you with the 

 chemicals we find satisfactory to that end." In 

 his recent letter to me, dated 27 November 1973, 

 Korringa wrote as follows: "I suggested to treat 

 the oysters by bathing them in a mercury solu- 

 tion, using the organic fungicide we used on 

 large scale against infection with shell disease. 

 This kills hundred procent all organisms on the 

 outside of the shell which cannot withdraw in a 

 hermetically closed shell. You see from my cor- 

 respondence that I have treated the oysters with 

 this disinfectant before shipping them. Therefore 

 I feel sure that Codium fragile cannot have been 

 introduced in the American Atlantic waters with 

 our oysters." 



When the oysters arrived at Milford, they were 

 again carefully examined, washed with fresh 

 water, and dipped in a weak solution of copper 

 salt. At that time, however, we were not con- 

 cerned as much with the introduction oi Codium 



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