112 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
waters in Long Island Sound, the oyster-growers have nothing to fear 
for the safety of their beds, no great amount of pollution having been 
found at any place examined, and the interchange of waters with the 
open sea being sufficient also to insure their purity far above the stand- 
ard required for oyster-raising. Much has been learned with respect 
to the present condition of the oyster beds and of the adjacent bottom, 
and as to the natural-history features of the region, including the habits 
of starfishes; but no new methods have been discovered for the destrue- 
tion of this enemy, although suggestions have been offered which may 
prove of some value. 
During the course of the investigation it was not observed that any 
of the oyster beds were being harmed to any appreciable extent by the 
growth of sponges or worm tubes, the latter, however, having occa- 
sioned some loss in 1852 in the vicinity of New Haven. The large win- 
kles (Fulgur and Sycotypus) are said to do a greater or less amount of 
damage, but no instance of their destructiveness came directly to the 
attention of the party, and, owing to their size, they may readily be 
detected and removed. The oyster-growers claim, moreover, that when 
they have once been cleaned from the beds they give them no further 
trouble during the same year, and they also state that they are rapidly 
decreasing in abundance, due no doubt to the numbers which are de- 
stroyed annually, together with their conspicuous egg capsules. The 
drills and starfishes dispute the title of being the most destructive of the 
oyster pests, the former operating chiefly in the more brackish and shal- 
low waters, and the latter invading all other territory, although not 
entirely absent from the former. The drill, however, feeds generally on 
smaller oysters than the starfish, and the extent of its damage is less 
appreciated by the oystermen. The starfish, therefore, is usually most 
dreaded, and very justly so, in the more open waters of the Sound, 
where the great majority of the beds are situated. 
It is unnecessary in this connection to enumerate the mass of facts 
that has been obtained to show the amonnt of damage caused annually 
by these two enemies of the oyster. In fact, it is very difficult to esti- 
mate the money value of the Josses, which may include only the outlay 
in the planting and tending of the beds, or extend to the prospective 
profit on the crop after it has matured. Aninvasion by starfishes may 
be detected early enough to insure their being dredged up before they 
have accomplished much injury. Otherwise they may succeed in de- 
stroying a portion of a bed, or even an entire bed of large area, and 
they generally appear suddenly, without any warning. 
Opinions differ as to the months during which starfishes are most 
destructive. The evidence collected, however, tends to prove that they 
are feeding on or about the beds during the entire year, and when the 
food in one locality is exhausted they move elsewhere, the places where 
they congregate and do the most damage changing more or less from 
year to year. The breeding season appears to extend over nearly, if 
