REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES, 53 



BIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES AND EXPERIMENTS. 

 OYSTER INVESTIGATIONS. 



The Bureau has been unable to continue the series of surveys of the 

 oyster beds of the several States, which it has been conducting for a 

 number of years and wliich have proved of value to the States in the 

 administration and development of their oyster resources, owing to 

 the necessity for extensive repairs to the steamer Fish Hawk, the 

 services of wliich are essential to the work. The large amount of 

 data collected in the preceding year during the survey in Alabama 

 and Mississippi Sound has been collated, and at the end of the fiscal 

 year the charts and report of the investigation were practically 

 completed. 



Investigations concerning the breeding and general hfe history of 

 the oyster drill and other animals destructive to the oyster industry 

 have been continued and have resulted in the accumulation of much 

 information which it is hoped may serve as a basis for experiments 

 respecting practical means for protecting the oyster beds from their 

 inroads, wliich entail a direct and indirect loss difficult to estimate, but 

 undoubtedly exceeding several hundred thousand doUars annually. 



The oyster industry yields about one-third of the total income 

 derived from all of the fisheries of the United States. Upon the other 

 fisheries the Government annually expends upward of $500,000 for 

 purposes of fish culture, the methods of wliich are not applicable to 

 the oyster on account of its pecuhar characteristics and life history. 

 For the oyster fisheries to receive from the Government assistance 

 equivalent, in proportion to their value, to that rendered other 

 fisheries, about $250,000 would be recpiired, but as a matter of fact, 

 owing to lack of personnel for the work, the Bureau's annual expendi- 

 ture in behalf of the oyster industry is usually not 1 per cent of 

 that amount. The oystermen justly complain that they are not 

 receiving their share of consideration at the hands of the Govern- 

 ment. Through their own industry and enterprise, with such assist- 

 ance as the Bureau's hmited resources have permitted it to give, 

 they have increased the product of oysters about 65 per cent during 

 the past 22 years, and the increase has been greatest where the 

 Bureau has done most work and where its recommendations have 

 been given best eflfect. The oyster is probably unique among food 

 l)roducts in that during tliis period of nearly a quarter of a century 

 there has been practically no increase in its cost, although, owing to 

 the development of oyster culture, there has been an improvement 

 in quality. 



The oyster industry is subject to many perils and is susceptible 

 to much improvement in its methods, and the Bureau should be 

 provided with the means to give it the assistance which it requires 

 and which its importance and miique record give it the right to 

 demand. 



