170 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
Table 8 indicates that, in most cases, the mortality was proportional to the 
height of the bed. On all low ground the oysters have experienced a heavy mor- 
tality, while the higher beds show no abnormal death rate, except where the currents 
are slow. Beds, Nos. 86 to 93, in Swindel Cove are relatively high; but suffered a 
heavy death rate. These beds are behind the large gravel bar which partially closes 
the mouth of the cove, and are covered by a slowly moving eddy when the tide is 
high. On the northwest side of the creek which crosses the oyster beds in Oakland 
Bay, the private and State reserve beds have suffered a greater loss than those of the 
same level elsewhere. Here again the current is sluggish and the casualty high. 
Records taken in Oyster Bay (Totton Inlet) in the same manner as the census 
of Oakland Bay are also shown in Table 10. In material that had been culled recently 
less than 18 per cent was found to be dead. One year after being worked, between 
0.8 per cent and 12.5 per cent of the oysters may normally be found to have died as 
a result of handling, the percentage varying according to the number of seed oysters 
broken. In all cases where the loss is greater than 12.5 per cent the oysters have 
been recently handled and a large number of the small ones broken in process of 
removing the marketable adults. 
