ABOVE: Oysters recovered from an 



AREA MARKED ON WlNSLOW'S MAPS. 



also were identifiable on a nautical chart. 



"Without electronics, that was state-of-the 

 art back then," explains Ballance. And when 

 he puts the projections on Winslow's maps up 

 against modern maps, Winslow remains supe- 

 rior. "They [Winslow's maps] were doing better 

 than my nautical chart!" exclaims Ballance. 



WINSLOW'S BIGGER PLAN 



But Winslow wasn't surveying oyster 

 reefs simply for historical record. 



He had been hired by the state legislature 

 to determine if Pamlico Sound contained 

 enough oysters to support a commercial fishery. 

 The oyster business already was booming 

 in Maryland and Virginia's Chesapeake Bay 

 in the 19th century. North Carolina hoped 

 similar economic gains could come from its 

 waterways. 



Almost immediately after completing 

 the survey, Winslow retired from the Navy and 

 started the Pamlico Oyster Company, appoint- 

 ing himself chief operating officer, according 

 to Kathleen Carter, a historian at High Point 

 University. He planned to sell areas near larger, 

 more productive reefs as private leases. He des- 

 ignated the bigger reefs as "Public Grounds," 

 hoping they would provide spawning stock for 

 nearby private leases. 



When the survey results were released in 

 1888 confirming an abundance of oysters, it 

 created what Carter calls an "oyster bonanza" in 

 Pamlico Sound. Companies and private fishers 

 from the crowded Chesapeake began arriving in 

 droves. Sales of leases skyrocketed. 



Some historians blame Winslow's survey 

 as the beginning of the end for North Carolina's 



natural oyster reefs. But Ballance 

 believes that's a matter of perspective. 

 "That's like saying if someone had 

 killed Christopher Columbus, then the 

 New World never would have been 

 discovered. It may have delayed it a few 

 years, but that's about all." 



Despite the economic gains from 

 oysters in the late 1 9th and early 20th 

 centuries, tensions escalated among local 

 fishers and transients. By 1 891, the state 

 tightened its oyster harvesting laws, even 

 authorizing the use of force to remove 

 "oyster pirates," a term for fishers from 

 outside the state, notes Carter. 



By 1 892, Winslow had a severe 

 public image problem. Many accused him of 

 omitting details about the Public Grounds beds 

 from his written survey reports. One senator 

 from Hyde County said Winslow "defrauded 

 North Carolina of its richest oyster beds," 

 according to Carter. 



Some of Winslow's survey reports appear 

 questionable. In one report, Winslow wrote: 

 "Another small unimportant bed lies between 

 Ocracoke Island and Howard's and Clark's 

 Reef." 



The survey maps show that this "unim- 

 portant" reef indeed existed; yet nearby was the 

 fifth largest oyster reef in the entire sound, notes 

 Ballance. "He just sort of left that out." 



As suspect as the omission seems, 

 Ballance points out that it may have had more 

 to do with politics than personal greed. He 

 cites one of Winslow's survey reports from 

 a November 1887 meeting with the state's 

 shellfish commission: "The fourth meeting of 

 the board was held on November the 26th, and 

 the areas, limits and locations of the Public 

 Grounds of the Counties of Hyde and Carteret 

 were determined." 



Despite his role as surveyor, Winslow 

 didn't have the final say on Public Grounds, 

 contends Ballance. Whether or not the 

 allegations were true, outside skepticism 

 remained such that the Pamlico Oyster 

 Company shut down in 1892. Winslow 

 eventually retired to Connecticut, where he died 

 in 1908. 



BRINGING BACK THE OYSTERS 



Today, there are no more political 

 squabbles over the abundance of oysters in 



Pamlico Sound. Instead, tensions more likely 

 are fueled by the declining stock. 



In 2003, the amount of oysters 

 commercially harvested barely reached 49,000 

 bushels, according to the DMF. That figure is 

 considerably lower than the record 1.8 million 

 bushels landed in 1902, the year many consider 

 the peak of oyster harvesting in North Carolina. 



Habitat loss, pollution, overharvesting 

 and diseases like Dermo (Perkinsus marinus), a 

 tiny parasite that kills oysters when they reach 

 reproductive age, all have contributed to the 

 decline. 



"If we can bring a healthy oyster 

 population back, it will benefit not only 

 commercial harvest, but also habitat for other 

 important finfish and crustaceans," says Hardy. 



Moreover, oysters play a critical role in 

 the overall health of estuarine systems, adds 

 DeBlieu. "Oysters aren't simply to be dredged 

 up and eaten," he says. 



As the Pamlico Sound Oyster Reef 

 Restoration Project continues, Ballance's GIS 

 maps will help focus the restoration effort. "I 

 think any oyster reef we build out there will be 

 at a site based on Gene's work," says DeBlieu. 



"It gives us another layer in our selection 

 process," concurs Hardy. 



Once a potential restoration site is 

 identified, scientists assess the area's water 

 quality, substrate and salinity. Sometimes they 

 find healthy, natural oyster rock and try to 

 expand that area by restoring adjacent sites, 

 explains Hardy. At other times, they find only 

 piles of old shells with some struggling spat, or 

 baby oysters, attached. In those cases, scientists 

 must weigh the odds for successful restoration 

 against the overall restoration effort. 



"The ultimate goal is to restore the 

 resource," says Hardy. 



Reaching that goal may take decades, 

 even centuries, but Ballance's vision for 

 Winslow's maps elucidates the interim steps. 

 The mathematician is more than happy to share 

 the credit though: 



"His [Winslow's] party in the 1880s 

 accomplished in two years a feat that has yet 

 to be equaled to this day, even with all our 

 electronic gadgetry," says Ballance. "It failed 

 in its original purpose of promoting the oyster 

 industry in North Carolina, but may — in this 

 century — succeed in reversing the decline in 

 our remaining oyster habitat." □ 



COASTWATCH 17 



