198 
BULLETIN OF THE BUBEAU OF FISHERIES 
vast accumulations of live and dead shells, which cover areas of several square miles 
of sea bottom or extend for hundreds of miles along the tidal flats. In spite of such 
a striking abundance, many of the oyster-producing bottoms have become depleted, 
and the annual yield of oysters is declining. According to the statistics of the 
United States Bureau of Fisheries during the last 24 years, the annual production of 
market oysters has decreased 34 per cent. There may be several contributing 
factors that affect the annual crop of the oyster; but two of them — namely, the 
pollution of the inshore waters and the overfishing of the natural oyster bottoms — 
are undoubtedly the most important ones. Growth of cities along the Atlantic 
coast, accompanied by a tremendous development of industrial activity in the North 
Atlantic States, should be held responsible for the destruction of many natural 
resources of the ocean. With only a few exceptions, every city along the Atlantic 
and Gulf coasts has for jmars discharged untreated domestic sewage and trade wastes 
directly into the ocean. The effect of this deleterious and insanitary practice is 
that fish and shellfish in the vicinity of large cities have been either destroyed or 
made unfit for human consumption. Because of the present stringent sanitary 
regulations controlling the harvesting, handling, and marketing of shellfish, many 
thousands of acres of oyster-producing bottoms have been condemned, and formerly 
valuable grounds have become barren and worthless. On the other hand, intensive 
fishing on the natural oyster beds, coupled with the failure to return a sufficient 
number of shells to the grounds from which the oysters were taken, has resulted in 
the depletion of formerly productive natural bottoms. This decline in the produc- 
tivity of natural oyster beds necessitated the introduction of various methods of 
intensive cultivation or oyster farming which at present are in operation in the 
North Atlantic States. 
The oyster industry in the United States dates back to the early days when the 
first settlers on the Atlantic coast of America began to take oysters from the natural 
beds. They found oysters growing everywhere, and the supply of them seemed to 
be inexhaustible. For a long time no attempts were made to regulate or restrict 
the fishing for oysters, and no efforts were exercised to replenish the supply of shells 
taken from the bottoms. The predominating idea was that nature takes care of 
itself and that the productiveness of the beds could be kept on a constant level 
without exercising any care or consideration as to the time of fishing or number of 
oysters taken. , 
With the increase of population in the United States and corresponding increase 
in the demand for oysters, the beds and reefs yielded less, and some of them became 
entirely unproductive. Disastrous results of excessive fishing and lack of care were 
noticeable first in the northern parts of the country, where, because of the climatic 
and hydrographic conditions, propagation of oysters does not take place regularly 
and setting of young oysters is often affected by adverse weather. Oyster beds in 
the Gulf of Maine and on Cape Cod were soon almost completely depleted, while 
the grounds in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York began to suffer from 
overfishing and employment of wasteful methods. The first restrictive measure, as 
far as can be ascertained, was passed in October, 1766, when the Assembly of East 
Greenwich, R. I., passed an “Act for the preservation of oysters,” forbidding dredg- 
ing or other methods of taking oysters except tonging. In 1784 the State Legislature 
of Connecticut passed a law empowering the coast towns to regulate the oyster 
fishery within their respective limits. The main aim of the regulations adopted by 
