THE SHORT OYSTER SUPPLY.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 167, 16 July 1924, Page 10

THE SHORT OYSTER SUPPLY.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I will state as briefly as possible the causes of the continuous shrinkage in all the beds, and total depletion of many miles of our once vast natural rock oyster beds. When the Marine Department took control of the picking and sale of oysters in 1908, the beds both at Auckland and Bay of Islands ■were fully stocked, either with fullymatured or immahired oysters (excepting Coromandel). It was then the contention of the chief inspector of fisheries there would be no difficulty in re-stocking the beds, as each oyster left to spawn would produce annually some half * million spawn, and the proper manner of picking the beds would be to thin them out and a re-stocking by the spawn of the remaining oysters would be assured; which instructions I carried out from 1909 till 1923. Now, it must be understood that when the beds were properly picked, and all the mature oysters were removed from the beds and the surface of the rock left clean, as was done previous to 1908, by the licensed pickers, a crop of spawn covering the whole area so picked never failed during the whole period extending over seventeen years previous to 1908, and, as stated above, the fall of spat covers the whole of the rock surface from low water neap tides to within about Ift from high water. The young oysters appear on the cleanly picked surface of the rock about the first week in September, and as they continue to grow the weaker ones become overgrown and killed in the struggle for existence, and so continue until the surviving oysters reach maturity, which takes about six years from spat. When matured, the whole of the oysters on the bed grow so close to each other that they shelter and protect one another from the action of the sea, which is constantly washing them, and continue to do so until disturbed by the agency of man. The most valuable are the soft rock beds, from which the whole crop may be removed, if necessary, without waste, but by the theoretical method of thinning out, or removing every other oyster, they come off the soft rock in clusters of as many as six, leaving vacant spaces between the remaining oysters, unprotected and fully exposed to the constant action of the sea. The remaining oysters left for propagation purposes, given room by the removal of others, naturally expand, the shell grows thicker, and the oysters rise in height, and the action of the sea on the soft rock washes the foundation from beneath the lower shell, and the oysters are washed away and thousands of sacks have been lost and many miles of our most valuable rock oyster beds have been depleted at Auckland and Bay of Islands by the destructive manner by which the beds have been, and are still being picked. Since the department took control in 1908, the spaces caused by the thinning out process have never become re-stocked naturally, and in every instance they have become fouled by barnacles, mussels, grape seaweed and other marine growths! Note tie decrease in the supply f rom the Auckland oyster beds from 190S wben equal to present-day sacks of five tin? 9842 sacks were taken, and the total saSs. tLe b6dS iD 1922 "as 38M Had the Auckland rock oyster beds been poked under the same conditions as they were picked by licensed pieter. «_^»S-?afti£ in such a condition that they will not s==« , rh__a_r.