SCALLOP INDUSTRY OF NORTH CAROLINA 191 



teract the work of man and of other enemies or destructive agents 

 by taking physical measures to improve propagation, growth, and 

 survival. It is applied extensively to oysters and to a limited ex- 

 tent to clams. As far as the writer knows, it has not been attempted 

 to protect scallops on a scale of any great consequence. 

 \ 



ACTIVE CONSERVATION 



Active conservation of commercial bivalve mollusks may be either 

 public or private. In northern States conservation of the oyster 

 is left mainly to private enterprise (oyster culture). In the South, 

 so far as it is carried on, it is chiefly a State enterprise. Whether 

 public or private, it consists essentially in planting " cultch " for 

 the attachment of matured larvse. the distribution of young or 

 " seed " to the growing grounds, the provision or maintenance of 

 spawners, and protection against enemies or destructive agencies. 

 Active conservation may be veiy elaborate, especially as a private 

 enterprise, and become merged with work that is not strictly con- 

 servational but intended rather to improve the market product. 



The most striking and probably the most important phase of 

 oyster culture (except the provision or maintenance of a supply of 

 spawners) is the provision of cultch, for which, in England and 

 America, oyster shells are used chiefly. In general, this planting 

 of cultch can not be done advantageously for the scallop, which 

 attaches itself by a byssus principally to eelgrass. Transplanting 

 for growth and the pro\nsion or maintenance of spawners offer the 

 best means for improvement. 



Certain areas produce large and valuable scallops. If these be- 

 come depleted, probably they could be stocked advantageously with 

 young scallops from less-favored growing areas, particularly if the 

 latter are well stocked. It is even possible that, when scallops are 

 crowded on a given area, it would be wise to thin them (to plant 

 areas no more favorable for growth). The planting of areas already 

 well stocked is not recommended. 



Maintenance of a supply of spawners over a large area is merely 

 the maintenance (as by proper regulation) of the supply of com- 

 mercial scallops. Because of the shortness of their life, spawners 

 can not be maintained by setting a quantit}^ aside, as may be done 

 with longer-lived forms. However, it is possible that, when areas 

 are depleted, it would prove advantageous to stock them with even 

 a limited quantity of scallops to act as spawners. Belding believed 

 that on one occasion he was very successful in doing this on a small, 

 nearly inclosed area. It is probable that he was, but it is by no 

 means certain that such success may be expected even in such a 

 favorable area as that in which he experimented, still less in an open 

 one. Little or no " set " may result, or it ma}^ be carried elsewhere.'^ 

 Nevertheless, providing scallops for spawning in extensive depleted 



' In the summer of 1924, before spfiwninc had more than begun, substantially all the 

 North Carolina scallops except thosi' ou the beds off Morehead City were killed. In 1925 

 there were almost no year-old scallops there, but there was an abundance of them at 

 Fivers Island, 2 or 3 miles away, and enough for commercial purposes at more distant 

 points in Beaufort Harbor and in one place in upper Bogue Sound. Thus, if these scallops 

 off Morehead City did propagate successfully, it was to the benefit of other areas. 



