of drills, oysters cannot be raised from seed here. Instead adult oysters are 

 shipped each spring from Long Island and New Jersey to be sold the following 

 fall and winter Setting of oysters in Oyster River is fair, but drills rapidly 

 destroy the sets . 



Rhode Island . Gibbs (pers. com) writes that Mr. Reynolds, an 

 oysterman active during the period 1870-1900 in the Wickford, Rhode Island; 

 area, first noticed drills m this state in 1870 and believes they were transported 

 on oyster seed from Chesapeake Bay to the Conimicut Point oyster beds , Inger - 

 soil wrote in 1881 that the drill occurred abundantly in many parts of Narragansett 

 Bay in that period and rapidly destroyed oyster seed and younger oysters . In 

 1888 Rathbun found many drills in Narragansett Bay and Providence River, and 

 noted that Urosalpinx was so abundant and so destructive between Gaspe Point and 

 Pawtuxent Beach that owners relinquished claims to oyster beds; and that Fields 

 Point and Bullocks Cove, which were formerly the most productive oyster beds 

 in the river, were badly overrun by drills, Rowe (1894) estimated that the damage 

 done by Urosalpinx in New England as early as 1894 was approximately one milbon 

 dollars , In 1902 Carpenter also found drills extremely abundant m Narragansett 

 Bay and remarked that they destroyed a great many oysters in a short time , C 

 Johnson in 1915 found the drill well distributed in Narragansett Bay and Watch 

 Hill; and in 1937 Galtsoff et ah wrote that this pest was very abundant on the rocky 

 shores of New England, 



Connecticut . This state received its share of imported oysters from 

 southern waters and in this way may have added to its native drill fauna. Accord- 

 ing to Ingersoll (1881) and Collins (1891) the importation of oysters, principally 

 to the New Haven area, from the lower Chesapeake Bay and tributaries began 

 between 1830 and 1840 in sailing vessels, and reached a maximum between 1855 

 and 1860. In 1891 Collins fonnd Urosalpinx very troublesome to oyster planters, 

 particularly destructive to small oysters, and most abundant in New Haven Harbor 

 where "they apparently increase in numbers and destructive power each year" . 

 Later C. Johnson (1915) observed drills commonly distributed in New Haven and 

 Stratford, and Jacot (1924) found them along various beaches near Bridgeport. 



New York Ingersoll (1881) has given an excellent description of the 



abundance of oysters in New York Bay and vicinity at the time white man first 

 colonized these shores , Oysters grew in abundance over much of New York Bay, 

 and in the lower reaches of the Shrewsbury, Raritan, Passaic, Hackensack, Hudson 

 and East Rivers. Approximately 50 miles of magnificent oyster reefs extended up 

 the Hudson River from Sandy Hook By 1810 the oyster resources m this area 

 were apparently depleted by man. In combination with these lecal changes, it is 

 highly probable that drills were inadvertently imported from the south on oysters 

 sailed in for planting from Chesapeake Bay as early as 1816. 



