290 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Under the present regulations of the fishery the number of very small oysters 
(under 1 inch in length) destroyed frequently equals the number of large ones util- 
ized. Attached to the shells of the large oysters will occasionally be found many 
small ones from 3 to 6 months old. As many as sixty of these young oysters have 
been found attached to the shell of a single mature one. This number, however, is 
very unusual, but the proportion for the entire bay might certainly be expected to 
average during most spawning seasons at least one or two young oysters for every 
mature one. These small oysters can not be utilized in the market-houses, and when 
delivered there are thrown upon the shell heaps. They have already passed through 
the most precarious period of their existence. Their shells have become sufficiently 
hard and stout to resist many of their enemies, and while some of them would doubt- 
less perish if permitted to remain on the reefs, yet the mortality among them would 
scarcely be much greater than occurs among mature oysters. The remedy for their 
protection is not apparent. A careful oyster-culturist would doubtless postpone the 
taking of the mature oysters until the young ones were sufficiently developed to be 
safely removed from their attachment, but this course is scarcely practicable on the 
public domain without temporary close time on the reefs. 
With respect to close seasons, which for forty years have been the most popular 
forms of protection in America, the close time in the fall is of value because of the 
protection it affords the small oysters from injury from the source above noted. But 
the opinion is growing among the best-informed persons that the spring close time is 
generally of little value to the reefs ; in fact, under some circumstances it would be 
better for the oystermen to continue their operations to within a week or so of the 
spawning time. Their work would render the reefs more nearly free from sediment, 
vegetable growth, etc., thus facilitating the attachment of the spat. 
The general opinion that the disturbing of mature oysters immediately prior to 
the spawning time greatly injures them has little foundation. To be sure, if oysters 
are removed from the reefs there are so many less to perform their reproductive func- 
tions, but the same applies equally to those removed eight months before. The action 
of the dredges themselves is not materially injurious to those oysters left on the beds. 
Naturalists are well aware that the most delicate ascidians are frequently roughly 
dredged, and if placed in a bucket of sea water may be examined in perfect health an 
hour or two afterwards; and it is scarcely probable that so hardy a mollusk as an 
oyster, capable of being kept barreled for weeks, shipped thousands of miles, and then 
bedded with perfect safety, would suffer so much injury from being jostled by the 
dredge as to fail in performing its usual functions. However, the spring close season 
in Maryland is deemed valuable because of its restricting the spring trade in small 
oysters for bedding purposes in other States, which, however, could be effected by the 
complete enforcement of the cull law. It is also of benefit to the agricultural interests 
along the shores in making labor more abundant. 
There are other conditions that encourage a depreciation of the free fishery and 
for which the individual oystermen are not blamable. Among these might be men- 
tioned an entire lack of care to leave the grounds or the small oysters in a condition 
suitable for the growth of the latter, and an absence of any attempt to prepare the 
beds for the attachment of a “set” during the spawning season. But everyone will 
recognize the extreme difficulty of devising a system for remedying the latter evil 
suitable for application over large areas of the public domain. 
