38 



OYSTER CULTURE EXPERIMENTS IN LOUISIANA. 



SEABREEZE. 



Seabreeze is the name given to an oyster house, no longer operated, 

 situated on Bayou Terrebonne where it is intersected by Bayou La 

 Graisse and the cut-off to Lake Barre. Below this point Terrebonne 

 Bayou is very shallow^ and its discharge is mainly through Bayou 

 La Graisse and the cut-off into Terrebonne Bay and Lake Barre, 

 respectively. There are a number of leases located in this vicinity in 

 Terrebonne Bayou, Bayou La Graisse, and Lake Barre, but they are 

 all or nearly all on extinct oyster reefs and are planted with seed 

 oysters obtained from the natural beds. Experiments were under- 

 taken at this place for the purpose of determining whether a method 

 could be devised for using the exceedingly soft bottom common at 

 many places in the parish, and whether the physical and biological 

 conditions were such as to permit the set and development of young 

 oysters on planted materials. The site selected was a small cove on 

 the north side of Bayou La Graisse, where the water has a depth 

 of about 2 feet and the mud is so soft that a man wading will at once 

 sink above his knees, a consistency which any experienced oyster, 

 grower would at once pronounce prohibitive. The currents in this 

 cove are sluggish, but a strong circulation is maintained in the ad- 

 joining bayou. The salinity of the water at this station is compara- 

 tively high, the specific gravity during the two j-ears in which records 

 were made ranging between 1.0138 and 1.020G, few observations de- 

 parting materially from the general average of 1.0163. 



The waters of this vicinity are but moderately productive in oyster 

 food, the observations made in Lake Felicity, Lake Barre, Terrebonne 

 Bayou, and on the experimental beds yielding approximately the 

 same average results. The following table gives the record on the 

 experimental beds : 



Food Content, Specific Gravity, and Temperature of Watek on Experi- 

 mental Oyster Beds at Seabreeze. 



