The Transplantation of Shellfish

Abstract

FOR the past three years an interesting series of experiments has been carried out on the Lancashire coast by the officials of the Lancashire and Western Sea Fisheries Joint Committee with the object of improving the condition of the public shell fisheries. It has for some time been felt that the introduction of restrictive legislation has not removed all the difficulties incident to the successful protection of cockle and mussel beds where the beds do not form part of a several fishery, that is to say, are under private ownership. Restrictive methods such as the abolition of destructive implements of fishing and the prevention of the removal of cockles and mussels under a certain size, no doubt do protect beds from excessive depletion, but there are various factors which require other treatment for their solution. In some districts, notably at Morecambe, beds have become overcrowded, so that thinning is an absolute necessity. In one instance the present writer counted 116 small mussels adhering, to an area of one square inch. In other cases there is the danger that the molluscs may become smothered by sand, or that the “spat” has struck too near ihe high-water mark for the mussels to develop to the size at which they may legally be taken by the fishermen. Three years ago the scientific subcommittee of the Lancashire Sea Fisheries District expended a small sum of money in order to try the experiment of thinning the Morecambe mussel beds. The shellfish that were removed were transplanted to other suitable areas nearly or entirely bare of shellfish.