Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-03-06
The OYSTER SITUATION
And ITS REMEDY
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All that is needed to restore the
great bulk of these so-called depleted
rocks to state of productiveness as full
and complete as that formerly obtain
ing is to strengthen the statutes regu-
lating the working of them and to rigidly
enforce such statutes. Demonstration
of this has, in measure at least. been
furnished under the administration of
the present Board of Fisheries. Thanks
to the efforts which this Board has been
putting forth since its induction into
office to keep the pirate and the mar
auder off the natural rocks during the
closed season and to enfore the Gull and
other laws, during the open season.
there has been marked Improvement in
the condition of the sources of the State s
seed supply. In Pocomoke Sound, for
example, rocks which two or three years
ago would scarcely repay their working
are now said to be largely productive
again and bid fair to soon become as
fruitful as they ever were. The same
thing is also true, to greater or less
extent, of rocks in other sections. All
of which goes to show conclusively that
what is needed to preserve the seed
supply is not to lease the so-called
barren rocks to the planters with a view
to having them artifcially cultivated
but to furnish these rocks such protec-
tion as will enable them to recuperate.
There are, it is admitted, small per-
centage of rocks so thoroughly depleted
that they would themselves never re-
cuperate to any appreciable extent.
Under different circumstances these
might be taken out of the prohibited
territory and leased for planting or seed
purposes without jeopardy to the other
rocks, but with conditions as they are
and must remain, this would be an ex-
pertinent of more than doubtful wisdom.
These, save in isolated instances, are
located in the midst of rocks which are
productive, and to lease the former to
private individuals would largely add to
the difficulties of protecting the latter.
This must be generally obvious to those
at all familiar with the location and
grouping of the rocks. Especially is
this true of the-ocean side of Accomac
and Northampton counties where the
rocks are usually small in area and
clustered together. To lease out one
rock in any of these clusters would be
to give the lessee ample and almost
nnllpoItA6 OrNYNn~fnpifxy 70 a.
maraud upon all the others. No police
protection would suffice to prevent il.
certainly none which the resources
from the industry would justify the
State in furnishing. Assuredly it is
better for the State, better for the
oyster industry and better for those en-
gagged in any OF its branches that these
unproductive rocks, embracing in the
aggregate comparatively small area
at most, should continue to be idle and
useless than that they should be rem
dered fruitful and serviceable at the
risk, if not the cost, of injury to the
States seed supply and of the future of
the industry.
The great trouble with the oyster sit
uation in Virginia has been the policy
of the State to approach the subject
from the standpoint of direct revenue
rather than from that of fostering anC
protecting the industry. That the policy
is altogether false goes almost without
saying. Any true and enlightened un
derstanding of the question must SEE
that direct revenue is only secondary
consideration, that the prime essentia
is to foster and promote the industr,
and that to this end the fullest protec
tion of the sources of seed supply abso
lutely are necessary. That this has no
been done heretofore can not in any wa,
be properly chargeable to the Board o
Fisheries. That Board has done tn
best it could and all that could be reason
ably expected of it, considering tn
ways and means at it's command. TIL
States oyster navy is woefully and ad
mittedly inadequate to properly polio
the widely extended territory which
is relied on to patrol, the funds place
at the disposal of the Board by the Leg
islature have been grossly insufficien
for the proper accomplishment of tn
work in hand, and the laws regulatin
/ the industry are in many cases unsuite
) or inadequate for the effectuation of tn
: ends sought. In these circumstance:
: the wonder is not that the State
$ oyster industry has declined but that
e has been kept up as well as it has.
The time has come when the situate