The old shells were much eroded but live oysters had few attached 

 fouling organisEis, The absence of small oysters and spat indicate 

 this is usually a poor setting region. 



Station 4 - Fletcher Key . This is a good oyster reef having a 

 firm broken shell bottom at an average depth of 9 feet. Commercial 

 harvesting was carried on here up until April. Appro::imately 95 

 per cent of the present population is made up of oysters less than 

 2 inches long. Mortality amounted to less than 5 per cent. The 

 shells and oysters were covered with spat less than two weeks old. 

 The oysters were in fair to good condition, feeding, and with gonads 

 about half spawned. Fouling organisras were numerous but no oyster 

 drills or drill egg cases were found. 



Station 5 - Pelican Key . Tliis reef is made up of a hard broken 

 shell bottom with an average depth of 8 feet. The oyster population 

 at present is badly depleted and made up almost exclusively of smeill 

 seed oysters. There was no evidence of recent mortality. The oystere 

 were in fair condition, feeding and with gonads approximately 1/4 spawned. 

 This reef showed more new growth, up to 5 mm. , than the other bars ex- 

 amined. Ihere was a heavy recent set of small oysters. Fouling organisms 

 were not numerous. No oyster drills or egg cases were observed. This 

 area is good for catching seed oysters but is lacking in cultch. 



Station 6_ - Telegraph Key . South Side . This reef is composed of 

 broken shells on a firm bottom. All of the oysters were less than 

 market size and showed no evidence of mortality. The oysters were in 

 fair condition, feeding and had gonads which were approximately 1/2 

 spaivned. There was only slight evidence of new shell growth. Fouling 

 organisms were practically absent. There had been a recent heavy setting 

 of oyster spat. This reef has an inadequate amount of cultch to build up 

 the population. 



Station 7 - Bayou Pierre . This station was established for collect- 

 ing only hydrographic data. 



Station 8^ - Square Handkerchief . West Side . This reef has an average 

 depth of 10 feet; the bottom is hard, made up of old broken shells mixed 

 with some sand. The reef was planted with seed oysters during March and 

 April, 1949. The oysters were growing well and showed no evidence of 

 dredge damage or recent mortality. The meats were in only fair condition, 

 some of them showed green deposits in the mantle. The gonads were about 

 1/2 spawned. Fouling was moderate, but the shells had been riddled by 

 sponge and boring clams that had later died. There was a very heavy set 

 of young oysters but the amount of cultch on the reef is inadequate. 



II 



