50 



FISHERIES OF THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES. 



Statement, by Counties, of the Catch by Minor Apparatus in New Jersey 



in 1904 — Continued. 



NOTES AND DETAILED STATISTICS OF PRINCIPAL FISHERIES. 



Oyster. — By far the greatest oyster-producing region in New Jersey 

 is Maurice River Cove, a branch of Delaware Bay in Cumberland 

 County. The value to the fishermen of the oyster catch in this county 

 in 1904 was $1,046,147. Of this amount, $973,237 is the value of the 

 vessel catch, the balance being taken by boats under 5 tons. Prac- 

 tically all the market oysters are taken from private beds, with 

 dredges. The method of lifting dredges on vessels in this region 

 has undergone some change through the use of a patent lifting 

 machine run by gasoline, thereby dispensing with the labor of one or 

 two men. 



The entire coast of New Jersey produces oysters, but the market 

 supply comes chiefly from planted beds, from which the oysters are 

 dredged. The most important of the beds on the outer coast are in 

 Barnegat Bay and Great Bay, but here as elsewhere in 1904 the oysters 

 were poor, and consequently a smaller quantity than usual was taken 

 up. Keyport has a prosperous planting industry, and there are pro- 

 ductive planted beds also at Perth Amboy, Chapel Hill, Pleasure Bay, 

 Oceanport, Branchport, and in Atlantic and Cape May counties. In 

 Cape May County the practice of planting shells for collection of spat 

 has become quite profitable. In nearly every locality, however, the 

 number of oyster planters has decreased in the last five years, this 

 being especially the case at Perth Amboy and Chapel Hill. A serious 

 drawback to the enterprise in some places, noticeably in New York 

 and Newark bays and the Shrewsbury River, is a condition of the oys- 

 ters known as "the greens." Pollution of the streams with refuse 

 from copper refineries has been found to affect the oysters by giving 

 them a greenish color and an unpleasant taste, which even rebedding 

 for a season has not sufficed to remove. 



Oysters from the natural rocks are usually too small for market and 



