CHAPTER 13 



The Oyster, Clam, Scallop, 

 and Abalone Fisheries 



Lynne G. McKee 



The Oyster Fishery 



The oyster was one of the first sea foods utiUzed by man. This species, 

 living in shallow waters between tidal levels and in protected bays and 

 estuaries, was easily taken by primitive man who had not developed 

 tools and weapons. Since the oyster is a sedentary organism, this food 

 supply was available at all seasons of the year. Ample evidence, such 

 as huge kitchen middens and shell mounds, indicate that the oyster was 

 a staple food supply for primitive peoples in certain favorable areas for 

 many hundreds of years. These vast beds of an easily available food 

 enabled nomadic tribes to settle down and form permanent settlements. 



The genus Ostrea, which embraces at least nine commercial species, is 

 found on the shores of all continents with the exception of the Antarctic 

 region. In the United States three species are of commercial importance. 

 On the Atlantic Coast the vast beds of 0. virginica found by the early 

 colonists became the basis of the present great oyster industry. On the 

 Northwest Coast a small species, 0. lurida, was of commercial importance 

 until about the turn of the century when over exploitation nearly brought 

 about the extinction of the native oyster industry. Experimental plantings 

 of the eastern oyster, 0. virginica, on the West Coast did not prove 

 successful, and the Japanese oyster, Crassostrea gigas, was then imported 



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