778 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [26] 
In certain localities where the fishing of oysters is a national industry, 
as at Cancale and Granville, in order to obviate the evil as much as pos- 
sible and prevent the entire depletion of the banks, the oyster territory 
has been divided into zones or sections, and each section is fished in 
turn, while the others are left for perhaps a year or two to repair their 
losses and fill up the vacancies caused by the dredge. Thanks to this 
system, which, unfortunately, has not been general, these two quarters 
have been able to preserve their beds from complete ruin, but have not 
been able to increase their fruitfulness or restore them to their ancient 
splendor. In fact the use of the dredge—bad at any time, for it not only 
tears up oysters of all sizes, but also buries the spawn and the young 
beneath the mud which it stirs up, and destroys thousands of oysters 
which should be left to mature, for every thousand procured for the 
market—becomes more injurious every day, since, in order to increase 
the returns of fishing upon a devastated soil, and supply the demands 
of an ever increasing consumption, the oystermen are obliged to employ 
stronger and larger dredges and drag them more frequently over the 
same territory, so that the bottom becomes torn up, denuded of shells 
and rocks which are indispensable to the young growth, and offers a 
surface ready to receive a deposit of mud suitable for the development 
of mussels. 
Further, in designating September as the time of opening of the fish- 
ing season, the administration acted with a desire to protect the oysters 
during the spawning period, but it did not perceive that the measure 
was useless, because incomplete. Of the immense number of germs 
produced at this time from a bed of oysters, only a very small propor- 
tion escape the innumerable enemies always near at hand, or, failing 
to be carried away by the ocean currents, become attached to the 
valves of the mother oysters or to the prominences of their native bed 
and serve to restock it. In September, when the fishing commences, 
these oysters, now only about a month old, are scarcely visible, requir- 
ing very close scrutiny to detect them, and when an old oyster is 
taken from the water at this season all the young upon its shell are 
inevitably destroyed. If, on the contrary, the fishing was begun in Feb- 
ruary, these oysters could be easily seen and removed from the objects 
of attachment, either to be returned to the sea or placed in parks or 
claires. This method would be of triple advantage to these latter 
places, since the fishing would not last longer than three months, and 
the parks would receive the harvest, which could be held there and re- 
tailed in accordance with the demands of commerce. Upon such con- 
siderations as these, which are in a high degree protective, the new 
fishing regulations have been founded, and these prudent measures, 
added to the practice of restocking, will be sure to re-establish and in- 
crease the oyster industry of our coasts. The state, as proprietor and 
guardian of the domain of the sea, has thus done its share; the fisheries 
