5° 



Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 



been reported, and the examinations which were made, indicate that 

 the reported quantity of small oysters which the Lumps annually 

 produce, is excessive. 



The productive oyster grounds situated above a line connecting 

 Bodkin point with Swan point, exclusive of Swan point bar, include 

 the following natural oyster bars : 



Area Quantity 



Name of Bar. Area Actually Oysters on Bar* 



Reserved. Productive. When Surveyed. 



f A N 



Anne Arundel County. Acres. Acres. Bushels. 



Bodkin Point, north 547 275 14,300 



"Lumps," east of Craighill Channel.. 2,048 650 161,850 



Baltimore County. 



Miller's Island Lump 140 50 2,650 



Tea Tables 2,136 1.050 130,200 



Man O'War Shoals 734 370 15,910 



Kent County. 



Hodges 298 225 96,075 



Gale's Lump 1,927 1,500 120.000 



Mitchell's Bluff Buoy 94 10 7,910 



Tolchester Lump 39 20 14,460 



Coal Lump 210 105 7,665 



Deep Shoal 90 45 7,470 



Phoenix 46 25 225 



Total 8,309 5,325 578,715 



From these figures it is seen that the total area of natural oyster 

 grounds reserved to the Public Oyster Fishery of the State in this 

 section, where oysters fail to grOwand mature properly, is but 8,309 

 acres. If from this total area we eliminate the unusually large 

 amount of barren bottom which has been necessarily included within 

 the limits of the natural bars in bounding them by straight lines, 

 the area of actually productive botoms will be reduced to about 

 5,325 acres, which is 2^2% only of the entire natural oyster re- 

 sources of the State. 



On these two points then — the area and the output of the Lumps, 

 there is a wide variance between the reports, given out by parties 

 who are materially interested in exaggerating the importance of this 

 section, and the results of actual examinations but, with respect to 

 the accuracy of the reports of the great damage annually sustained 

 by these oysters on account of floods of fresh water and deposition 

 of sediment in the Spring, the Commission found evidence that 



* Based upon the estimate of 329 marketable oysters per bushel and 821 culls 

 per bushel. 



