PRODUCTION AND COLLECTION OF SEED OYSTERS 207 
II. OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS IN SEED-OYSTER COLLECTION 
IN WAREHAM RIVER, MASS., 1926 
By PAUL S. GALTSOFF 
INTRODUCTION 
The body of water known as Wareham River is a small oyster-producing area 
in the State of Massachusetts, where the oyster industry has been carried on since 
colonial days. Oyster production in this region has never attained large proportions, 
and in the early days consisted in the exploitation of the natural beds. Apparently 
they were soon depleted, because in 1775 the town meeting of Wareham voted that 
there should be no shellfish nor shell sold or carried out of town (Ingersoll, 1881). 
Later on, planting of shells was introduced, and it is known from the court records 
that in 1840 oyster cultivation was carried on in Wareham River. At present, the 
oyster industry in Wareham consists mainly in the production and selling of seed 
oysters, only a small number of which are grown locally. The operations are carried 
out by individual oystermen, who receive small grants from the town. The average 
size of the grant is about 2 acres. Unfortunately, the grants are not well described 
and for the most part unsurveyed. According to Belding (1909, p. 155), in 1909 
the total area of grants approximated 1,000 acres, but only 196 acres were under 
cultivation. The annual production of seed oysters is around 20,000 bushels (Belding, 
1909; Division of Fisheries and Game, 1925, p. 58). 
Two reasons influenced the selection of this locality for the experiments with spat 
collectors. First, the character of the oyster business consists mainly in producing 
seed oysters which are sold during the fall before the onset of cold weather; second, 
as could be ascertained from local oystermen, setting occurs here very regularly, and 
during the last 25 years there were only a few years when the oysters failed to set. 
The possibility of increasing the productivity of seed oysters per acre is of great 
importance for localities like Wareham River, where the area of bottoms suitable for 
shell planting is very limited. On the other hand, the regularity of setting affords 
opportunity for an experimental study with spat collectors. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE LOCALITY 
Wareham River forms the extreme northwestern corner of the head of Buzzards 
Bay (fig. 4); the town of Wareham is located on its west bank, approximately 2 
miles above its mouth. The entrance to the river from the bay is obstructed by a 
sand bar known as Long Beach, extending for about 700 yards in a WNW. direction, 
and by extensive shoals and numerous ledges through which a dredged channel 12 
feet deep and 100 feet wide leads to the town. The channel ends at the railroad 
bridge, where the river is about 75 yards wide. Above the bridge the river expands 
again and is joined by the shallow Agawam River, partially surrounded by marshes. 
The depth in Wareham River, excluding the 12-foot channel, between Long 
Beach and the railroad bridge, varies from 1 to 11 feet at mean low water. The areas 
having a depth from 5 to 1 1 feet are, however, very small, the greater portion of the 
river being formed by shoals and bars from 1 to 4 feet deep. The bottom is generally 
hard in the southern half of the river between Barneys Point and Long Beach Point 
(fig. 4) and sticky and soft mud along both sides of the channel north of the line 
connecting Barneys Point and the mouth of Broad Marsh River. All over the 
bottom, excepting the shoals that are exposed at low water, eelgrass grows prolifically. 
