52 



U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



EXPERIMENTS WITH PARTITIONS 



The first collectors of this type were devised by the author in 1923 

 (Bureau of Fisheries Document No. 961) for the purpose of facili- 

 tating the handling of heavy oyster sets and reducing to a minimum 

 the loss of seed 03^sters from overcrowding. They were made from 

 ordinar}^ egg-crate partitions which were dipped in hot paraffin and 

 then coated with a layer of coarse sand. The setting in Milford 

 Harbor during that summer was comparatively light and an average 

 of onl}^ two or three spat per square inch was obtained on the par- 

 titions. These experiments showed, however, that these cheap col- 



FiGUBE 3. — Partition collector covered with 15,000 spat 2 months old. Great Souih 

 Bay, Long Island, 1929 



lectors were capable of collecting thousands of spat and that in two 

 or three months they would break up so as to produce single sted 

 oysters. The partitions quickly sank to the bottom and were heavy 

 enough to withstand tides and storms in a moderate depth of water. 



Experiments along this line were temporarily discontinued until 

 1927 and 1928 when partitions coated with tar and asphalt were 

 used, as spat had often been found growing on such materials when 

 applied to boats, fish nets, etc. These collectors likewise obtained a 

 set which, unfortunately, was very light for both years so that the 

 real value of the partition for handling heavy sets could hardly be 

 demonstrated. If such partitions had been placed in Great South 

 Bay in 1929, it is very likely that they would have been equal to 

 those coated with lime and cement for collecting and growing the 

 heavy set that occurred there. 



The partitions that were used in Milford Harbor and Great South 

 Bay during the past summer were made of 22 interlocking strips or 



