76 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



West of Atchafalaya Bay the oyster-beds are few and unimportant. 

 The set of the currents of fresh water discharged from the Atchafalaya 

 is westward and their volume is such that the water of Atchafalaya 

 Bay, East Cote Blanche Bay, West Cote Blanche Bay, and some parts 

 of Vermilion Bay is too fresh to support oyster life. In some parts of 

 Vermilion Bay and Marsh Island there are a few inferior oysters and it 

 is reported that there is a bed of considerable size in the open waters of 

 the Gulf off Southwest Pass. There are said to be a few insignificant 

 beds in Calcasieu Pass and perhaps some at other inlets west of Ver- 

 milion Bay, but in general the character of the coast line is not such as 

 to favor the growth of oysters, as the sounds, bays, and bayous which 

 are the favored home of the oysters are lacking. 



NATURAL OYSTER-BEDS— SUMMARY. 



There are no oyster-beds in Lake Borgne, owing to the low salinity 

 of the water. Beginning at the islands at the western end of Missis- 

 sippi Sound, there are scattered beds as far as Isle a Pitre. There are 

 now few, if any, oysters in Chandeleur Sound, although they formerly 

 existed there. The cause of their extermination was not fully deter- 

 mined. In nearly all of the interior bays and bayous intimately con- 

 nected with Mississippi and Chandeleur sounds there are more or 

 less extensive beds, most of which have not yet been worked to their 

 full capacity, and some of which contain virgin beds of great produc- 

 tiveness, although the oysters are usually rather inferior in quality. 

 In several places the productiveness of the beds has been considerably 

 reduced and in others, e. g., Three-mile Bay, the present supply is 

 entirely dependent upon the care with which the oysters are culled. 

 There is no immediate prospect of the extermination of these beds, 

 owing to their great extent, the chief danger being that the concentra- 

 tion of effort upon a comparatively limited area and the taking away 

 of large numbers of young oysters to the canneries may in time prove 

 destructive. The safeguard is to enforce proper culling laws. 



In Plaquemines Parish, east of the Mississippi, there are extensive 

 beds of young oysters, practically untouched by the hand of man, 

 stretching from Mozambique Point to Bird Island Sound. From Bird 

 Island Sound around the Delta to Barataria Bay there are no natural 

 reefs of importance, those formerly existing there having become nearly 

 or entirely extinct, some by reason of overfishing and breach of the 

 culling law and others as the result of crevasses. 



In Barataria Bay and its contiguous waters the reefs are commer- 

 cially extinct and apparently beyond hope of redemption by natural 

 means, principally, if not entirely, as a result of destructive methods of 

 fishing. These reefs have probably no future value except for plant- 

 ing, and unless soon utilized will eventually become of no greater value 

 than the surrounding bottom. 



In Timbalier Bay and Lake Felicity the beds are still quite produc- 

 tive, but are already showing signs of approaching depletion to an 



