LAST NATURAL BED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20014, 12 August 1939, Page 14

LAST NATURAL BED

FOVEAUS STRAIT OYSTERS

CHALLENGE TO RESEARCH

(Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day

The likelihood that Foveaux Strait contains the last natural bed of deepsea oysters extant in the world, and the necessity for protecting the bed from undue exploitation and possible ruin, is ‘ referred to in the annual report of the Marine Department, in the section dealing with dredge oj*si pis. The report mentions that 10 boats were operrting steadily throughout the season on the Foveaux Strait bed, and that the total quantity of oysters taken was 67,243 sacks, of three bushels each, while the total value was .£58,751, The total of oysters taken again, exceeded that of the previous year, and established a record.

‘‘This is not altogether a matter for congratulation, in view of the scanty knowledge we possess as to the real extent and potentialities of these beds, and their capacity to withstand such heavy and increasing annual abstractions,” continues the report. Average Quality Inferior

"The average quality of tiie oysters both as to size and’ condition was inferior to that of previous seasons, which would appear to indicate a deficiency of first-grade sliell-fish on the beds that have been worked and which may be an ominous sympton o-f a general reduction in the stocks.

“It. seems likely that these beds in the Foveaux Strait are the only natural 'beds of deep-sea oysters of any considerable extent left in the world. In the case of practically all the oysters marketed at present in other parts of tiie world their production has been more or less assisted by artificial cultivation in some form or other. Farmed oysters naturally cost more to produce than those which are harvested' from the natural beds. It therefore behoves us to see that our natural beds are duly conserved; and to ensure this it is necessary that in-

vestigations to give us a better understanding of their true extent and their potential productivity should be provided for as early as possible.”