The Rise And Decline Of The Ol})mpia Oyster 



The stomach of the star fish, if its victim is a large oyster, 

 protrudes into the shell and entirely envelopes the oys- 

 ter, devours it, then draws in its stomach and moves on to 

 its next victim. Olympia Oysters being very small, are 

 more easily worked upon, and they are devoured rapidly. 



Some years starfish are very numerous in the oyster 

 area. One summer I saw an army of them. Many thou- 

 sands, as they attacked a bed of Olympia seed oysters on 

 the State Oyster Reserves in North Bay. As they devour- 

 ed their oysters, with the aid of the then incoming tide, 

 they would move on a few feet, settle down and enjoy 

 their next victim. These reserves were not patrolled, so 

 needless to say the State had no seed to sell that year 

 from those reserves. 



Starfish have no power of locomotion when the tide is 

 out. So they must move from one hunting ground to an- 

 other and do their feeding when the tide is in. For that 

 reason they are easy prey for the oyster growers. He can 

 easily see them and destroy them. I remember an exper- 

 ience once when I learned how not to destroy them. I 

 pulled them apart, tearing the fingers of their star from 

 each other, and threw them on the ground. Later I passed 

 that way and found that each of those fingers had lived, 

 and that new fingers v/ere forming on each one of the 

 pieces, where the wound had healed. I later was told that 

 each finger had its own heart and circulatory system. 



The oyster growers watched for and destroyed the 

 starfish. Many were used for fertilizer. So, as the years 

 have passed they have become fewer until there are not 

 many seen in Oyster Bay. 



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