CHAPTER XIV 

 The Shellfish Industry 



Second only in importance to the true fish as a source 

 of food from the sea come the shellfish. To a scientist 

 shellfish signifies Molluscs, such as oysters, mussels, scallops, 

 whelks and the like ; but as used in commerce the term also 

 includes members of the crab and lobster family, or 

 Crustaceans, and it is in this inclusive sense that it is here 

 employed. Though in Great Britain, owing to the great 

 size of the fisheries, the shellfish industry is of com- 

 paratively small importance, this is by no means the case 

 in many other maritime countries, while in this country 

 there is a great field for development especially in connection 

 with the molluscan shellfish which, with the exception of 

 the highly esteemed oyster and scallop, are unjustifiably 

 despised by a large section of the population. 



Molluscs 



Shellfish have been consumed by man from time im- 

 memorial as is shown by the presence of shell heaps, often 

 of great dimensions, near the dwellings of prehistoric man, 

 and so arranged that it is almost certain they are the work 

 of man and not of nature, while animal bones and rude 

 weapons have occasionally been found in them. On an 

 island off the coast of California a primitive race of people 

 who lived largely on shellfish are said to have survived 

 until the nineteenth century. Oysters have long been 

 regarded as a delicacy, to such an extent by the Romans 



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