2o6 THE SEA FISHERIES 



much has been done both by the Fishmongers Company and the 

 trade to rehabihtate the oyster in pubhc confidence/and this 

 mollusc, provided it be obtained from reUable sources, is now as 

 safe as any other article of diet. Unfortunately the mussel is still 

 under suspicion, and it is not to the credit of the State that until 

 quite recently it has made no efforts to protect those of its members 

 who are the least able through ignorance and poverty to look after 

 themselves. 



The administration and regulation of the shellfish beds are under 

 the control of the local fisheries committees, and these bodies vary 

 much in efficiency. The late Dr. Bulstrode, who had exceptional 

 opportunity of estimating the value of their work in connection 

 with the regulation of the public fisheries for shellfish, summarises 

 in a report 1 to the Local Government Board the position of the 

 local committees with regard to this matter. This report raises the 

 important question of the relative value to be attached, in judging 

 the condition of shellfish, of topographical (including tidal), epi- 

 demiological and bacteriological evidence. With regard to the 

 local committees Dr. Bulstrode says, " Each of these committees 

 employs a clerk and one or more inspectors or fishery officers, but 

 none of them possesses a medical officer of health or other officer 

 with a public health certificate or diploma. Several of the com- 

 mittees have at their disposal a steamer which enables their officers 

 to move from one place to another with rapidity, such committees 

 being the North-Eastem, the Eastern, the Lancashire and Western, 

 and the Cumberland. It is clear that from a purely inspectorial 

 standpoint the services of these officers would be most valuable, 

 and I feel sure from a fairly intimate knowledge of the character of 

 their work that they would cordially co-operate with, and assist, 

 whatever existing or newly created body upon which executive 

 powers are conferred. 



Hitherto these committees with one notable exception have not 

 concerned themselves with the public health aspect of the shellfish 

 question. Their duties have consisted solely in regulating the 

 collection of shellfish in a manner calculated to yield the best 

 commercial results to the fishermen, not only in the present, but 

 in the future, and in carrying out their duties towards this end they 

 have, in the earlier days of their history, encountered considerable 

 opposition from the fishermen, who were slow to recognise that it 

 was their interests alone which were being fostered. But the 

 officers of the Lancashire and Western Sea Fisheries Committee 

 have . . . made a detailed survey of the shellfish beds and areas 



» Report on shellfish other than oysters in relation to disease, by H. T. Bulstrode. 

 Cd. 5313. Wyman and Sons, London, 191 1. 



