Fish-culture: a practical guide to the modern system of breeding and rearing fish by Francis Francis 1822-1886

Author:Francis, Francis, 1822-1886. [from old catalog]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fish culture, Fisheries
Publisher: London, New York, Routledge, Warne, and Routledge
Published: 1863-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

to others extend lines or cords, and from these cords at intervals are suspended faggots, to and within which the spawn of the oyster, when first hatched, can attach and ensconce itself until safe from any-outward danger. The use of these faggots and stakes is important, as when the young of the oyster is first hatched, it scatters in all directions, until it finds something to which it can safely attach itself Meantime it is the prey of every fish or marine creature that can take it, while vast numbers perish from other circumstances; and were it not for the fact that each female oyster is said to give forth yearly from one to two millions of young, the stock, under the calls that are made upon it by man, must rapidly diminish. When about three years old the oyster becomes edible. When they wish to obtain oysters at Lake Fusaro, they either break them off the stones with hooks, or pull up the stakes or faggots, and detach such as they require with their hands. This method of fishing, instituted by the ancients, is in practice to the present day; and the hint has not been lost upon the French, who have imported the plan to Marennes, while a system very similar to that at Commachio has been instituted at the Basin d'Arachon. 1 We have few, if

1 The following account of what is being done by the French at the lie de Re* was lately published in the columns of QaligTumi:—

q "M. Coste

any, of such salt-w^ter nurseries and ponds in England, although such ponds abound around our coasts, and there is scarcely a harbour or a river's mouth where

" M. Coste lias just communicated a paper to the Academy of Sciences on the progress of his artificial oyster-beds on the western coast of France. Several thousands of the inhabitants of the island of Re* have been for the last four years engaged in cleansing their muddy coast of the sediments which prevented oysters from congregating there; and as the work advances, the seed wafted over from Kieulle and other oyster localities settles in the new beds, and, . added to that transplanted, peoples the coast, so that 72,000,000 of oysters, from one to four years old, and nearly aU marketable, is the lowest average per annum registered by the local administration —representing, at the rate of from twenty-five to thirty francs per thousand, which is the current price in the locality, a sum of about two millions of francs, the produce of an extremely limited surface. That the waves or currents carry the seed of oysters is a well-known fact, since the walls of sluices newly erected are often covered with them. In the island of Re* the existence of the oyster-beds, however, no longer depends upon this contingency, they being now in a state of permanent self-reproduction. The distinction of oyster-beds into those of collection and those of reproduction is quite unnecessary, since the property of reproduction belongs to them all.

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