THE OYSTER AND THE OYSTER INDUSTRY OF THE 

 ATLANTIC AND GULF COASTS. 



By E. P. Churchill, Jr., Assistant, U. S. Bureau of Fisheri^. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The taking of oysters constitutes the most valuable fishery of the 

 United States and one of the most valuable in the world. The 

 annual yield in this country is about 30,000,000 bushels, with a return 

 to the fishermen of nearly $15,000,000. At least 99 per cent of the 

 oysters of the United States are produced on the Atlantic and Gulf 

 coasts, as shown by the following table : 



Oyster Product of the United States. 

 [From statistics collected by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries.] 



The report of the Commissioner of Fisheries for 1913 stated that 

 the total number of persons engaged in the oyster industry of the 

 United States was 67,257, the yearly wages paid amounting to 

 $10,876,801, and that the investment in vessels, apparatus, property, 

 etc., was over $17,000,000.^ 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



On the eastern and southern coasts of the United States oystere are 

 found from Wellfleet, Mass., on the inner shore of Cape Cod, to the 

 southern extremity of Texas. The industry on these coasts is 

 bounded by the same limits. Although in past times oysters were 

 found in Maine and New Hampshire, practically none occurs there 

 now, and these two coastal States alone have no oyster industry. 



The location of the main oyster beds in each State concerned and 

 the principal towns in which the industry is centered are cited below. 

 The Atlantic and Gulf coast is not lined with a solid bed of oysters 

 along its entire length. Oysters are not found in the open sea, but in 

 coves, bays, estuaries, and mouths of rivers — in a word, in partially 



1 Report U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries, 1913, p. 40. Washington. 



