558 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



fish are to be avoided. This was pointedly 

 brought out during the winter of 1924-25 when a 

 series of typhoid outbreaks was traced to con- 

 taminated oysters which had been shipped from 

 one packer to several large cities in the United 

 States (Lumsden et al. 1925). Following this, 

 basic control patterns were drawn up between the 

 shellfish industry, the State health departments, 

 and the United States Public Health Service. 

 The Bureau of Chemistry of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture (now the Food and 

 Drug Administration of the Federal Security 

 Agency) and the Bureau of Fisheries of the United 

 States Department of Commerce (now the Fish 

 and Wildlife Service of the United States Depart- 

 ment of the Interior) were involved in this early 

 planning. 



Under this arrangement, the Public Health 

 Service develops recommended standards and 

 manuals of operating practice (Anonymous 1946) 

 which are applied by the shellfish industry under 

 the supervision of the State shellfish-control 

 agencies. The Public Health Service evaluates 

 these control procedures of the State agencies on 

 a continuing basis. When satisfied that proper 

 controls arc exerted by the States, the Public 

 Health Service publishes routine lists of shellfish 

 shippers who are certified by the individual State 

 shellfish-control authority, usually the State 

 department of health. These lists are distributed 

 widely throughout the United States to health 

 officials and others who may be concerned with 

 the problem of market quality of raw shellfish. 

 In practice, a shellfish shipper finds it necessary 

 to be properly certified in order to be able to 

 market his products in most parts of the United 

 States. 



As in the case of most of the shellfish-producing 

 States, the States bordering on the Gulf of Mexico 

 divide the controls over shellfish operation be- 

 tween two State agencies. The purely sanitary 

 aspects of the control program, including surveil- 

 lance over the sanitary quality of shellfish- 

 growing beds and operation of packing houses, 

 rest with the individual State health department. 

 Actual control of shellfish-growing areas which 

 are closed to commercial fishing, on the other 

 hand, is handled by some other State agency. 

 In the case of Florida, the State Board of Conser- 

 vation bears this responsibility, while in Alabama 

 the State Conservation Department is involved. 



The Mississippi Seafood Commission patrols 

 growing areas closed because of pollution in that 

 State. In Louisiana, the Division of Oysters 

 and Water Bottoms of the Department of Wild- 

 life and Fisheries assists the State Department of 

 Health in patrolling the closed areas. The Texas 

 Game and Fish Commission cooperates with the 

 Texas State Department of Health on patrol 

 work in that State. 



In the following pages areas closed to commer- 

 cial harvesting of shellfish are described specifically 

 on the basis of information resulting from sanitary 

 and bacteriological surveys conducted by the 

 several State departments of health. In most 

 instances the results of such surveys are contained 

 in reports cited in an annotated bibliography 

 (Anonymous 1952). 



SUMMARY OF WATER POLLUTION DATA 



The summary set forth below is based entirely 

 upon readily available information from various 

 sources, and no investigations have been made 

 specifically for the purpose of this report. The 

 data therefore are admittedly incomplete. This 

 is particularly true of industries and pollution 

 caused by their wastes. Gaps in the data are 

 nonetheless significant and poiat the direction of 

 necessary future work. 



Because of tremendous quantities of available 

 dilution water, it is unlikely that poUutional 

 wastes originating in the coastal area have appre- 

 ciable effects upon either water or resources in 

 the open waters of the Gulf. Reports of such 

 effects have not been forthcoming, and no inten- 

 sive investigations appear to have been made. 

 On the basis of information now available, how- 

 ever, there are at least 369 separate sources of 

 pollution that may have localized effects upon 

 coastal waters of the Gulf or the lower reaches of 

 tril)utary streams. One hundred ninety-seven of 

 these are municipalities, sewer districts and in- 

 stitutions that utilize tributary watercourses, 

 sloughs, lagoons, estuaries, and bays to dispose 

 of their wastes. The sewer systems concerned 

 serve a total of about 3 million persons. Indus- 

 trial wastes of unknown character and quantity 

 are also discharged to these sewer systems. Sew- 

 age from 35 municipalities with a total of 755,000 

 sewered inhabitants reaches surface waters with- 

 out treatment of any kind. Numerical data 

 on treatment loads or plant efficiencies are not 



