7 GEORGE V SESSIONAL PAPER No. 38a A. 1917 
AN INVESTIGATION OF OYSTER PROPAGATION IN RICHMOND BAY, 
P.E.1., DURING 1915. 
BY JULIUS NELSON, PH.D., BIOLOGIST. 
New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. 
At the re-yuest of the Biological Board of Canada, the writer, during August, 1915, 
turned aside from his oyster studies in New Jersey waters to investigate the oyster 
situation in Richmond bay, Prince Edward Island. A study of a region so remote from 
a locality hitherto familiar, gave promise of furnishing data that would help in dis- 
tinguishing between local and “ essential” influences in oyster propagation. 
The ultimate object of these studies is the promotion of the oyster industry, both 
as a fishery and as oyster culture. It is an effort to conserve and to increase food 
resources, creditable alike in those who investigate, those who direct, and all who in 
any way encourage such researches. 
PART I—GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF OYSTER CONSERVATION AS 
APPLICABLE TO CANADA. 
The oyster-bearing waters of Eastern Canada are practically confined to those bays 
of the gulf of St. Lawrence that indent the coast of Prince Edward Island, and the 
adjacent shores to the south and west, viz., Cape Breton and the province of New Bruns- 
wick. Farther south, the coast is now practically barren of living oyster beds for a 
thousand miles, i.e., along southwestern Nova Scotia, the bay of Fundy, and the gulf 
of Maine practically in its entire extent to Cape Cod. That this coast was once prolific 
in oysters, though more sporadically than further south, is shown by the existence of 
oyster reefs recently fossilized, of ancient shell-heaps and by the traditions of colonial 
and more recent history. It is of both practical and theoretical interest to ask, “ What 
caused the extinction of these oyster beds?” On the true answer to this question hangs 
our conclusion as to the fate of the Canadian oyster industry. 
One of the older! answers to this question assigned the cause of extinction of 
oyster beds along these northern coasts, to the gradual rising (geologically) of the 
shores, thus finally bringing the oysters so near to the surface that they were killed 
by wintry frosts and ice. It may be surmised that, if this process continued, the utter 
extinction of the Canadian oyster beds might be the ultimate outcome. It appears, 
however, that the coast is actually sinking; but the oyster reefs have been growing 
upward somewhat faster having attained a thickness of over 20 feet and have reached 
as near to the surface as possible. If proximity to the surface limits the growth of an 
oyster bed, the sinking of the coast has tended to prolong the life of the bed. It is dif- 
ficult to see how either of these conditions can extinguish the life on an oyster bed, 
since a limit of height is ultimately attained, where there is a balance between recup- 
erative and destructive forces. Everywhere, the tendency of oyster beds is to grow as 
high as possible. In the south, the oyster reefs are exposed at low tide; the oysters can- 
not feed while uncovered, yet the oysters are not starved out. But if the coast should 
rise, the living surface of such reefs would be killed, while the oysters at the edges would 
gradually spread into deeper water. On the other hand, the sinking of the bottom would 
be highly favourable to oyster growth, provided that temperature and salinity conditions 
1 Ingersoll’s Report on the Oyster Industry, 1882, Tenth Census of U. S., p. 25. 
388a—-43 53 
