Connecticut western news., 1917-11-08
STATES OYSTERS ARE IN PERIL
Connecticut Industry Threat ened by Pollution of Rivers
 Where Seed Live.
PRODUCTION IS DECREASING
Growers Also Hit by War Prices For
 Labor and Needed MateriaIs-Fish Already Driven Away by Foul l Waters.

Hartford.-The end of the oyster industry In Long Island Sound may come within few years unless there is most decided improvement in conditions affecting it, which have been growing steadily worse for some time. This is the opinion of men most familiar with oyster raising.
 So serious has the matter become that the government has taken it up, and an expert and his assistants from the Bureau of Fisheries have been at work all summer in Connecticut wa ters gathering data and making a first hand study of the situation in an effort to determine with scientific certainty what is responsible for the lack of young oysters, or "spats," the "set" for the last three years having diminished at an alarming rate, until this year there is practically none, all though weather conditions were more favorable than in many seasons, mak-' ing the longest barren stretch on rec ord.
 
 terman's seed, and "no seed, no crop" is as true of oysters as corn, with this difference, that, while the lack of seed affects the farmer at once, the oysterman feels it four years later, For, under ordinary conditions, an oyster is four years old when market ed. It therefore will be readily seen ruhu thn nucfo ,iy1cr f0 harvest crop but little more than b0 per cent of what it should be, be-. cause of lack of seed in 1913, and bearing in mind the decreasing "set" since, is looking forward with anx- tous forebodings to the next few years. I Polluted Water Is Blamed.
 Pollution poured into the rivers by manufacturing plants is blamed by the oystermen for the insuff1ciency of young oysters, and which, if not checked, they believe, means the ex- tinction of the oyster in Long Island Sound. There is much evidence to support this theory. The oyster prop agates successfully only under cer- tain favorable conditions, and, per- haps, nowhere on earth did nature ever provide a more ideal combina- tion of these than on the northern shore of Long Island Sound.
 It must have just the right mix ture of salt and fresh water, and here are numbers of rivers leisurely nov ing across broad fiat9, where they meet and mingle with the tides and produce the proper density. It must have a favorable temperature at the right time, and these comparatively shallow waters are soon warmed by the sun. It must have food, and these streams bring from the hills a wash from the soil rich in the microscopic vegetable life upon which the oyster feeds, and Long Island, stretching out like huge breakwater, protects swell of the ocean.
 AS a result of this favoring envi- ronment the oyster hourished, repro ducing so vigorously that, in spite of the rich annual harvests gathered each season, these natural beds found by the first settlers continued as prolific as ever. There came a time, however, when the supply was insufficient, and the oystermen found that by scattering gravel or shells outside 8 river mouth, to make a clean bottom upon which embryo oysters could settle and attach them selves, 1t was possible to increase the crop, and so oyster culture began but, although 1t has developed into a great industry, it is still dependent upon these natural beds for seed"
 Fish Already Driven Away.
 Along the banks of these streams have grown up populous towns and cities with great factories and shops constantly pouring an immense vol tune of pollution into them, acids dyes, by products of distillation sewage, etc., until the once clear sweet streams are murky and vile some of them in dry time having an actual stench. The choice fish once found in them in great numbers have long since been driven out by this pollution, and oystermen say il ts unreasonable to suppose that any thing so delicate as an oyster in it! initial stages could live in 1t.
 While this pollution has been in Ncreasing, the natural beds have beer decreasing and disappearing from tn, rivers, until now there are only {, few outside their mouths. Wher pollution has decreased for any req son these beds have begun to groy again. Also the "set" has a tendenc, to decrease with the increase of man ufacturing.
 Attempts to make up for a lack o "seed" in the Sound by bringing i from waters farther south have beer a failure, most of it dying the secon