204 American Fisheries Soci''ty. 



shells have been carefully scattered on selected depleted bottoms 

 with excellent results. The writer is informed that the State of 

 North Carolina has also adopted this method. It is not believed, 

 however, that this method will restore the natural bars to their 

 original condition, but it is believed that shell planting will stem 

 depletion and conserve this great natural wealth lying beneath the 

 waters of the Chesapeake. 



OYSTER ENEMIES. 



While the oyster has many enemies in almost every stage 

 in its career, these vary in size and kind in certain regions of the 

 Atlantic and Gulf coasts. The oyster growers of Long Island 

 Sound and adjacent water suffer large losses from the inroads of 

 starfishes, which come in from deep water and move in waves over 

 the bottom, devouring every oyster in their path and sometimes de- 

 stroying several hundred thousand bushels of marketable oysters in 

 one state in a single season. It is remarkable that a weak creature 

 like the common starfish should be able to prey on an animal so 

 strongly fortified as an oyster. In the Chesapeake region the power- 

 ful jaws of the black drumfish may literally clean out an oyster- 

 bed in one night, while the Gulf States have to deal with the drill 

 and the Pacific Coast States with a species of stingray. The most 

 serious recent enemy of the upper Chesapeake Bay oysters is the 

 m.ussel, which practically covered the oysters on the Bay and river 

 bars during the past season and materially affected marketing the 

 bivalves. The Bureau of Fisheries attributed this unusual growth 

 to the high density caused by light precipitation in the winter ancl 

 spring of 1920 and 1921. The heavy rainfall during the spring and 

 past summer has caused the mussels to fall from the oyster shelFS 

 and the condition is much improved. 



OIL POLLUTION. 



Our fin and shellfisheries as well as our wild fowl are now 

 subject to one common enemy — oil pollution — and unless concerted 

 action is taken in the near future by the several interests concerned, 

 this great natural wealth seems doomed to destruction. The solu- 

 tion of this problem has been before the Congressional Committee 

 on Rivers and Harbors for many months, and it is hoped that the 

 Am.erican Fisheries Society will see fit to ask Congress to expedite 

 action to relieve the situation. 



