SPOILING OYSTER BEDS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 32, 1 November 1928, Page 13

SPOILING OYSTER BEDS

RAVAGES OF THE BORER ■Dominion Special Service. Auckland, October 30. Hundreds of thousands of oysters iu the Auckland district are being destroyed by bore*, the depredations of which are causing Mr. A. E. Hefford, Chief Inspector of Fisheries, great concern. Mr. Hefford has .-.returned to Auckland from a visit to .the oyster grounds of the Bay of Islands, and he said the ravages of the borer were particularly noticeable. The borer in question is a small shellfish. It attaches itself to the oyster, and with its sharp tongue bores through the shell of the oyster, apparently paralysing the fish in the process. The borer then eats the oyster. “There seem to be countless oysters affected by the borer which. I regard as a serious menace to the supply,” Mr. Hefford stated. “This borer is present in the Hauraki Gul.f at Mahurangl, Kawau Island, and in other places where oysters grow.” Some of the money granted for the work of cultivation of oysters would be utilised in getting rid of the borer, Mr. Hefford said. Men were now employed going round beds and picking the borer from the shell of the oyster. It was very important that this work should be done now, because Captain Daniel had discovered that now was the spawning time of the borer, and the spreading of it could be prevented by destroying the borer already attached to oysters.