New-York tribune., 1922-07-09
TO THE RESCUE
OF OYSTERS
BY H. c. BoRLAND
Svilustration by Emile Schneilock
rF THE 1000 acres of fished-out oyster

IL lated several thousand jobless oyster
fishermen would be re-employed, the state
would have ar oyster bed rental income of
notable size and New Workers could buy
oysters for five cents a dozen.
These and other important results will be
achieved if the new oyster hatchery at Cold
Spring Harbor, J.. l., succeeds in putting
perments in oyster culture a commercial
basis. The hatchery, the first of it's kind in the
world, will grow seed oysters from oyster eggs,
all stages of the process being carried on in
doors, under artificial conditions. The process
employed will be that perfected by Captain
William Firth Wells of the State Conserva-
tion Commission of New York.
After two years of research and experiment
in oyster culture Captain Wells interested the
State Commission in his plans sufficiently to
obtain its backing in the project, and last
month whole truckload of apparatus was
left at the fish hatchery at Cold Spring Har-
Dor. The captain has now arranged his equip
nlent in little building there, known as the
Salt Water House, and as the oyster
spawning season opens, some time this month,
he will begin growing oyters. If his oysters
grow in tanks as we'll as they grew for him
in water jars last year Captain Wells will by
the end of the summer have proved that seed
oysters can be produced on commercial scale,
and next year his hatchery the island will
be turning out oyster seedlings by the million.
For years the oyster men have been trust
ing to nature and good luck to replace the
oysters they annually remove from the beds
not only along the New York coast, but along
all the American coast, and nature and good
luck have not been attentive to their job.
Conditions of tides, currents, sewage and sea-
sons have combined to make this natural
population failure.
"The adult oyster spawns somewhere be-
tween 100000 and 1Oo,Oo0ooo eggs a
year." said Captain Wells, "and of these
millions but one need be saved in order to
keep the oyster supply at standstill. This
is not being done, for the oyster supply is de-
creasing rapidly. You can see what waste
full method nature must have of growing oys-
ters from the eggs when get less than
one from minimum Of 100000 eggs"
The captain went on to explain that the
average oyster spawns three four times
before it is marketed, thereby making the in
fant mortality rate among oysters a ghastly
figure.
49," continued Captain Wells, cit is i'm
perative that something be done to grow seed
oysters. In New York State alone the state
owned oyster beds have declined in leasable
acreage at alarming rate In 1915 there
were nearly $4,000 acres; in 1921 these had
decreased to 81 900 acres. With the average
revenue 81 an acre, one can readily calcu-
late the cut in state revenue from these beds,
Besides these depopulated beds there, are
thousands of acres of submerged land suita-
Ia ro, x.y1ic ha
by fishermen if they were only seeded down
10 oysters
When asked to explain his method, which
will be put into practice at the state hatchery
this summer Captain Wells said:
""There is nothing deep or mysterious about
it. Yet I've even had people ask me how we
got the baby oysters to stay in after we
hatched them out and put them in the shells.
Phe young oysters develop shells of their own
within few days after they are Matched.
Even while they are in a microscopic stage
they have shell-like structure around them
which you can readily recognize as the begin
ming of their. future shell.
But to get back to their culture. First
of all we get batch of oyster eggs. To do
this have to get the adult oysters at
spawning time. Then the female oyster pro-
'siioNASSSoPaS
such quantity that they make the water almost
milky, particularly if she is in small vessel
of water BY regulating the temperature of
the water we can get the fertiized eggs to
hatch out in about nine or ten hours. The
lower forms of life hatch quickly, you know
Within day we have solution of micro
scopic oysters. At this stage, of course, they
have to have food and air, both of which
they get from the water. But because they
get food and air from it they have to have
change of water almost every day This
necessity is what stuck so many oyster ex-
perimenters. They couldn't find any way to
cnange the water without losing the oysters
Tor they are so small they slip through or
clog up any strainers. A couple of years ago
While was experimenting with them at this
stage was completely stumped Then one
AFTERNOON / saw milk separator-one of
those centrifugal machines which separate the
milk from the cream. And began to wonder.
why won't that do the stunt?'
$50 | got separator and tried it ont tt
worked. / got clear water out of one side and
a concentrated solution of oysters out of the
other Then l added fresh water to nv oysters
and they grew happily on Last summer I
got this machine h,,ilt n,d ,%