154 American Fisheries Society 



A small but excellent variety which brings a good price 

 on the local market and scarcely ever is shipped out of New 

 Orleans, never getting farther than the Louisiana line, is 

 the Grand Lake oyster, which is found in comparatively 

 small quantities in Grand Lake, approximately forty miles 

 west of Grand Island in the Barataria Bay. These oysters 

 are found in their primitive state, no effort having been 

 made to any extent to cultivate the bottoms and reefs in 

 this portion of the state. 



Besides the finer grades found in the local waters are the 

 Buras, or Supreme Bay oysters, which are gathered in un- 

 limited quantities from Supreme Bay, near the Gulf Coast, 

 on the east side of the river. These oysters are of a cheaper 

 variety and furnished principally to the canning factories 

 and local cheaper trade. 



CONSERVATION OF OYSTERS 



While there has never been any concerted movement 

 toward the conservation of the local beds of oysters, the 

 fishermen are becoming acquainted with the fact that 

 although there is an almost unlimited supply of oysters, the 

 beds must be conserved if the fishing is to go on indefinitely. 

 To this end the fishermen are working, although the work 

 of arranging the beds properly is hampered, owing to the 

 fact that no aid is being given by the state or federal au- 

 thorities. 



The seed oysters, with which the beds are supplied each 

 year, are gathered from beds on the east side of the Mis- 

 sissippi River about sixty miles below New Orleans. These 

 seeds are transplanted to the beds where the best results 

 have been secured. These beds are now being strewn also 

 with oyster shells. For every barrel of empty shells scat- 

 tered over the beds by the fishermen, in three years' time 

 three barrels of oysters will be reaped as a harvest. 



Dredging also aids greatly in keeping the beds in good 

 shape. Too much dredging would prove fatal to the beds. 



