NA TURE 



285 



THURSDAY, AUGUST 3, 1876 



OUR OYSTER FISHERIES 



THE Select Committee appointed by Parliament "to 

 inquire what are the reasons for the present scarcity 

 of oysters," have issued a short but very sensible Report 

 on the Oyster Fisheries, containing a recognition of the 

 fact that the supply of oysters has for some years steadily 

 decreased, and laying down recommendations for the 

 future regulation of natural scalps. The Committee have 

 not given much weight to the " theory of heat and tran- 

 quillity," which some naturalists consider essential to the 

 fertile spatting- of the oyster, but have come to the con- 

 clusion that the principal cause of the diminution of our 

 once plentiful supply of oysters is to be found in the con- 

 tinual over-dredging for them in open waters, without 

 allowing any sufficient " close time." In France, as the 

 Committee have found by making careful inquiry, the 

 regulations which hedge round the close season are 

 stringently observed, and in consequence of that exercise 

 of vigilance, the supply of oysters has increased ; the 

 Committee therefore recommend that a " general close 

 time" (? for open waters) should be established, and that it 

 should extend from May i to September i. This is just 

 the old popular close time, as it used to be considered 

 that oysters were only good for food in the months which 

 had the letter r in their spelling — the months from 

 September to April inclusive. 



With regard to this regulation of a "general close 

 time," the Committee offer the suggestion, that it 

 ought in some degree to be permissive, as there are 

 portions of the sea, especially the estuary of the 

 Thames, where it is doubtful whether any close season 

 for dredging would be required ; therefore, power ought 

 to be given to the Board of Trade, after inquiry, to 

 shorten, vary, or determine this close season in any par- 

 ticular case. It is also a recommendation by the Com- 

 mittee that the Board of Trade should have authority in 

 certain districts to prevent dredging for a given time. As 

 regards the deep-sea oyster fisheries, the Committee do 

 not propose any alteration of the present close time, which 

 extends from June 1 5 to the end of August. The infliction 

 of penalties for buying or selling oysters for consumption 

 during the close season is recommended. The proposed 

 regulations, it is thought, should be enforced under the 

 superintendence of inspectors aided by the services of the 

 Coastguard. The Committee approve the practice of 

 giving grants of foreshore and of sea-bottom to pri- 

 vate individuals and companies for the purpose of 

 breeding and feeding oysters. 



These recommendations of the Select Committee will, 

 in all probability, be introduced to the House of Com- 

 mons next session in the shape of a " bill," which will 

 probably in due time become law. The oyster is certainly 

 one of our marine products which we can protect by 

 means of a close time, seeing that the bivalve is a fixture 

 and remains during its lifetime in one place, unless vio- 

 lently removed. There is one point in the economy of oyster 

 life which has not yet been so thoroughly investigated as 

 it ought to be, namely, the age when an oyster becomes 

 reproductive. The period at which the oyster breeds 

 Vou XIV.— No. 3S3 



might, we think, be set down with more certainty than it 

 is at present. Some persons say it breeds in its third 

 year; others, that it is not gifted with the power of 

 reproduction till it is at least four years of age. It is a 

 recommendation of the Committee that " no oyster should 

 be sold from the deep-sea fisheries under 2J or three 

 inches in diameter ; " such oysters, in our opinion, 

 would not, on attaining that size, have reached 

 the reproductive age ; and it is a fact, we believe, 

 that enormous numbers of the edible bivalve reach the 

 market before they have had an opportunity of repro- 

 ducing their kind, which is, of course, one cause of the 

 present scarcity. It is laid down as a rule by those 

 practically engaged in the cultivation of oysters, that 

 oysters transplanted for fattening purposes do not breed, 

 or, to put the case in other words, do not get an oppor- 

 tunity of doing so. It is perfectly obvious that, if a large 

 per-centage of our oyster supply is sold before it has been 

 given an opportunity of spatting, that that of itself, must 

 tend to abridge the supplies. 



At one time the French oyster growers were in 

 danger of exterminating the oyster. From their eager- 

 ness to make money they rushed to the market with 

 the produce of their artificial pares before they had 

 been afforded an opportunity of breeding ! The natural 

 scalps which produce most of the oysters laid on 

 private fattening beds, never cease in their season to re- 

 produce, but the spat which they exude does not always 

 fall on proper bottom. Without a good holding-on place, 

 a " coign of vantage," the infant oyster is of no account. 

 It may get buried in a muddy bottom, or it may be 

 landed high and dry by the waves of the sea on a place 

 where it wiU assuredly die, or it may fall on good rocky 

 or stone-covered ground, in which case only it will 

 thrive. "Heat and tranquillity" are not at all neces- 

 sary, in our opinion, to ensure a good fall of oyster 

 spat, because the oyster obeying the laws of nature 

 spats at its own season, and there are hundreds of oyster 

 scalps yet to be discovered, which owe their formation 

 and subsequent growth to the wafting, by the wind, of a 

 " spot " of spat to some particular place, where the in- 

 fantile bivalves find a holding-on place ; a holding-on 

 place is all that is necessary for the healthy growth of the 

 oyster. This " theory " was promulgated in the Times 

 newspaper some years ago, and we are not aware of 

 anything having occurred since to prove it erroneous. 



What is really wanted for the protection of the oyster is 

 the assurance that these animals will not be sold before 

 they have a chance of reproducing their kind. Since the 

 introduction of the railway system, the demand for oysters 

 in distant places has become so great, and the price has 

 risen so high, that oyster culturists are tempted to send 

 immature animals to market, and it is this fact, more than 

 any failure of spat, that is leading to the scarcity. There 

 are not, in consequence of the unceasing demand, and 

 coniiequent high price, so many full-grown oysters left to 

 spat as there ought to be, hence the scarcity. Any act 

 of parliament that decrees two oysters to grow where only 

 one grew before, will be greedily welcomed both by oyster 

 culturists and by the public, and we hope that the issue 

 of the present Report will lead to some effective measures 

 being taken for the preservation of the delicious creature 

 ere it be too late. 



