OYSTERS— THE WORLD'S MOST VALUABLE 

 SEAFOOD. 



By H. W. ViCKERS 

 Chairman, Conservation Commission, Baltimore, Md. 



Oysters are the most popular and the most extensively eaten 

 of all shellfish; economically, they are the most important of all 

 cultivated water products and, with the single exception of the 

 sea herring, the most valuable of all aquatic animals. The oyster 

 crop of the world in the year 1913, according to Government sta- 

 tistics, amounted to over 42,000,000 bushels and was valued at 

 nearly $85,000,000. Of this output, the share of the United States 

 was 88 per cent of the quantity and 69 per cent of the value. Of 

 the remaining portion, fully 50 per cent belong to France. 



It is my intention, in this paper, to deal with the oyster prob- 

 lems of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and especially of the Ches- 

 apeake Bay, the world's greatest oyster ground. Any food prod- 

 uct of so great commercial value as the oyster and one which has 

 given a livelihood to thousands of citizens for generations, war- 

 rants the most serious consideration of those entrusted with the 

 care and preservation of the nation's fisheries. 



The natural oyster bars and rocks of the North Atlantic States 

 became practically exhausted many years ago. The oyster cultur- 

 ists of those states had no opposition when they determined to 

 raise oysters by scientific methods. The main thing they lacked 

 was the oysters to furnish the spawn and the seed oysters for the 

 start in the industry. Naturally their attention was focussed on the 

 section of the greatest natural production — Chesapeake Bay. Then 

 followed the greatest transplanting of oysters ever known in the 

 history of this country. From 1875 to 1900 it was a common sight 

 to see a dozen two or three-masted schooners from New England 

 anchored in the waters of Tangier Sound, loading seed oysters, 

 marketable oysters, and shells which had been scraped from the 

 rocks of the Sound, to be freighted to the northern planting 

 grounds. The Maryland oystermen were pleased with the idea of 

 a market, especially in the early spring, and no thought was given 

 to the fact that they were selling their future livelihood. Tangier 

 Sound alone was at that time producing about 4,000,000 bushels 



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