A Revival of Natural Oyster Beds?

Abstract

At one time immensely rich natural oyster beds fringed many of the coasts of western Europe. Those of the French and Scottish coasts yielded tens of millions of oysters annually, but the banks along the English, Dutch, German and Danish coasts were by no means negligible. These oyster beds disappeared, no doubt through overfishing, and a few poor remnants, scattered along our coasts, economically of little or no importance, remind us of the once important fishery on the natural oyster beds. Only in France and Holland were new methods adopted in time, and an intensive oyster culture, spreading prosperity in the regions concerned, took the place of the old free fishery on the natural beds.