2-REPORT OF OBSERVATIOiNS RESPECTING THE OYSTER 

 RESOURCES AND OYSTER FISHERY OF THE PACIFIC COAST 

 OF THE UNITED STATES. 



By ClIAKLES II. TOWNSICNI). 



CALIFORNIA. 

 SAN FRANCISCO BAY. 



The oyster industry of the Paciftc coast, exclusive of the trade in 

 the small indigenous species, has never extended beyond the limits of 

 the bay of San Francisco, where it has been restricted to the growing 

 or fattening of seed or yearling oysters, brought annually in large 

 quantities from the Atlantic coast and kept in the waters of the bay 

 until they attain a marketable size. Although this method of supply- 

 ing the market has been ijracticed by the oyster- dealers of San Fran- 

 cisco for many years, so that since the completion of the first overland 

 railroad there has constantly been a supply of eastern oysters in the 

 bay, it has generally been understood that there was no natural 

 increase of the species, its' alleged failure to projjagate being usually 

 attributed to the low temperature of the water. Some recent studies 

 of the oyster beds aiid of the physical conditions of the bay of San 

 Francisco by myself, under the direction of the United States Commis- 

 sioner of Fish, and Fisheries, have yielded data sufficient to warrant a 

 review of the entire subject in a new light. 



The interesting fact that oysters do propagate in San Francisco Bay, 

 in certain favorable localities at least, calls for some explanation as to 

 the long acceptance by the ]uiblic of the statement that there has been 

 no natural increase. This state of things may have resulted from one 

 or more of the following conditions, perhaps in part from all of them, 

 namely: The popular knowledge of the low temperature of the water 

 as compared with the same latitude on the Atlantic coast 5 the peculiar 

 situation of the localities where the imported oysters were laid out 5 the 

 enemies they were known to have in Pacific waters; and the lack of 

 sufficient public interest to demand the study and outlay necessary 

 to discover the real truth respecting the life of the eastern oyster in 



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