VI 



TRANSPLANTING ATLANTIC OYSTERS TO THE PACIFIC 



Incidental Removals. — In connection with the subject of oyster 

 culture, it may be stated that oysters have many a time been carried 

 outside of the present limits of their distribution, but apparently without 

 establishing colonies. The practice of taking them aboard schooners 

 and steamers bound for more or less distant ports cannot have failed to 

 make opportunities for settlement in foreign parts. I have found or 

 dredged oyster shells at many places in the vicinity of St. Andrews, N.B., 

 Canso, N.S., and Gaspe, Que. Every autumn a schooner (or more) is 

 awaited in Montreal with its cargo of Caraquets. On several occasions 

 such vessels have been forced by the unexpected early arrival of winter 

 to seek shelter in Gaspe bay where, after satisfying the local appetite, 

 the bulk of the oysters was thrown overboard. That there are no living 

 oysters in the bay was abundantly shown by my own very thorough dredg- 

 ing and plankton operations extending over two summers there. Gaspe 

 is no very great distance from Caraquet and it is conceivably possible for 

 larvae to drift that far, yet even the north shore of the Chaleur bay 

 (across from Caraquet) appears to be devoid of oysters. It would be 

 an interesting, instructive, and perhaps useful experiment to put out, 

 under the most approved conditions, suitable quantities of good seed or 

 brood oysters in a few selected places to the north and south of our present 

 oyster region, and have them guarded and examined for a few years. 

 An experiment started in 1902 to determine whether oysters can be culti- 

 vated in Annapolis basin, N.S., an arm of the bay of Fundy, has, as far 

 as I can judge, not been looked after with much care, and leaves the most 

 important points either unobserved or only guessed at. There is no doubt 

 that within the bounds of our present oj^ster regions there are many places 

 where planting and cultivation could be successfully carried on. These 

 should be seeded with our best grade of oysters, rather than with cheaper 

 varieties from the United States that maj^ also transport parasites or 

 other undesirable enemies. 



Transplantation from East to West. — Transplantings of small quantities 

 of Prince Edward Island oysters to British Columbia were made under 

 directions of officers of the Dominion Government in 1896 and again in 

 1905. Last summer (1911) I had an opportunity of examining some of 

 the survivors of the latter year's plant and found them growing and breed- 

 ing, which proves their ability to adapt themselves, and suggests the 

 advisability of making further and more extensive transplantations along 



