106 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



We have been trying to make the most of what nature supplies us free 

 and unassisted. Under this method the fishery is declining, the oyster 

 is dying out. 



To prohibit the catch is to make the oyster of no use; to permit it 

 is adding to the natural processes of destruction and hastening extermin- 

 ation. We must seek for a means to multiply the number of marketable 

 oysters without having to restrict the catch. 



Oyster Culture. — The sea is not illimitable, and its products are not 

 inexhaustible. The oyster is not only confined to shallow water near 

 shores, but to limited portions of the shore water. Brought into existence 

 and sustained for ages by natural processes, it is capable only of defence 

 against natural enemies. It cannot withstand the strain of over-fishing 

 by man. On the other hand man can not expect to continually get some- 

 thing for nothing from the sea. He has not been satisfied with the natural 

 productions of the land, but set himself to the destruction of the more 

 useless, and the increased cultivation of the most useful. He must do 

 the same in relation to the sea. It may be a long time before man gains 

 anything like a satisfactory control over the most valuable migratory 

 fishes, but it is very different with the oyster, which has lost all powers 

 of locomotion except for a brief larval period. It would almost seem to 

 have been expressly designed to lead man from the cultivation of the land 

 to that of the sea. The only way in which to materially and unrestrain- 

 ably increase the numbers of oysters is to expend labour in extending 

 and improving the natural conditions that are known to be necessary 

 or favourable to the existence of the oyster. 



In order to intelligently and advantageously expend labour upon the 

 oyster, or upon its environment, it is necessary to know its complete life- 

 history, and to know the natural conditions of its existence for each of 

 its several different modes of life. Until recently there was at one place 

 a great gap in the continuity of our knowledge; but this is now bridged 

 over and we are sure that we know every stage of its development and 

 with considerable detail. This puts us in a position to judge as never 

 before how, when, and where to best render assistance to the oyster. 



The assistance, in its nature, as well as in its manner of application, 

 depends especially upon the natural conditions of existence, the modes 

 of propagation and the methods of culture. 



The natural conditions of existence are either extrinsic, i.e. outside 

 of the oyster and reacting upon it, or intrinsic, i.e. within the oyster and 

 fitting it to withstand or make use of external forces. Extrinsic conditions 

 are either physical or biological — physical when they refer to the habitat, 

 biological when they refer to competition, food and the like. Intrinsic 

 conditions are either anatomical and physiological or embryological and 

 developmental — anatomical and physiological when they refer to the 

 structure and activity of the oyster, embryological and developmental 



