FISHERY IMPROVEMENT IN JERSEY. 91 



be enacted, but if lobster incubation be feasible upon this coast, as I 

 think now it is, the sale of such individuals would be permissible if the 

 " coral " or eggs were given by the fishermen to the official in charge of 

 the incubators. 



6. The re -establishment of a profitable oyster industry is, in my 

 opinion, by no means an illusory dream. A certain number of oysters 

 are still present upon the beds, and if quantities of fresh, well-cleaned 

 " culch," i.e. empty shells whereto the swimming spat may adhere, were 

 to be thrown lavishly over the beds, at the beginning of the spawning 

 period, I believe a good fall of spat would be secured under ordinary 

 favourable conditions. Of course it would be necessary to interdict all 

 dredging and trawling over such grounds for some years, with 

 resumption only under very strict regulations. The beds are too greatly 

 exhausted to recover if left to themselves, and a partial cultivation on the 

 lines I indicate furnishes the only alternative. 



In the event of the success of this treatment, with a little energy the 

 fishermen themselves, by the exercise of a certain amount of co-operation, 

 should be fully capable of caring for the beds, or at least of a portion of 

 them. 



Under such circumstances, those fishermen assuming such duties 

 should have ample guarantee against any infringement of their rights. 

 Either in addition to or in substitution of such oyster-farming, our fishers 

 might be granted small areas of sea-bottom in shallow inshore waters, 

 where spat might be laid down to fatten. The expense is a bagatelle ; 

 the only trouble would arise from poaching, and this is capable of 

 solution. 



7. By the judicious " planting " of a moderate quantity of imported 

 cockles, in a properly protected area of one of our sandy bays, a cockle 

 industry of considerable value is surely capable of development. 



8. In regard to another of the minor fishing industries, to wit, the 

 culture of mussels, our island offers considerable scope. Here again it 

 would be necessary to import a quantity of mussels, probably both seed 

 mussels and adults, to be judiciously "planted" in selected and protected 

 localities. In France much of the mussel cultivation is upon the Buchot 

 system, which consists of long lines of piles closely interlaced with 

 osiers, and is there extremely lucrative. The foreshore of one small 

 village near La Eochelle is said to yield a sum of £50,000 to £70,000 

 per annum from mussel cultivation alone. After a careful estimate of 

 the cost of such piles and the necessary osier, I find, however, that it is, 

 in Jersey, so much higher than in France, that such a system of 

 cultivation would not be profitable here. " Bed-culture " would be 

 preferable in Jersey, being the form of culture practised in Scotland, a 

 land where the mussel forms the staple bait of the fishermen. 



9. The question of profitable fish-hatching depends, locally, almost 



