Oyster Growers Research Articles

Water-Farming as Exemplified by the Oyster Industry

Transactions of the American Fisheries SocietyVolume 63, Issue 1 p. 154-157 Article Water-Farming as Exemplified by the Oyster Industry Lewis Radcliffe, Oyster Growers & Dealers Association of N. A. Inc., USASearch for more papers by this author Lewis Radcliffe, Oyster Growers & Dealers Association of N. A. Inc., USASearch for more papers by this author First published: January 1933 https://doi.org/10.1577/1548-8659(1933)63[154:WAEBTO]2.0.CO;2AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume63, Issue1January 1933Pages 154-157 RelatedInformation

SELF-PURIFICATION OF OYSTERS DURING HIBERNATION

HIBERNATION may be defined as the slowing down of biological activity as a result of a reduction of temperature. In the vegetable kingdom the vital processes are completely dormant during cold weather. Certain of the warm blooded animals as the bear, the hedgehog and the bat become inactive during the winter. Among the coldblooded animals nearly all of the northern amphibia and reptilia hibernate. However, the vital processes in all cases never entirely cease during hibernation. Hibernation of oysters appears to have been discovered about 1910 independently by a number of sanitary workers who observed that the bacterial content in winter oysters from polluted areas was abnormally low. In papers read at a meeting of the Oyster Growers and Dealers Association of North America in May, 1911, both Herbert D. Pease and F. P. Gorham discussed this apparent bacterial phenomenon and attributed it to the fact that the oysters were probably in a state of hibernation. The results of consecutive bacterial examinations of oysters from selected polluted areas in Narragansett Bay during the winter and spring of 1910-1911, together with data as to temperatures and bacterial quality of the overlying waters were presented in a paper by Gorham read before the Laboratory Section of this Association in December, 1911.1 These data may be briefly summarized as follows:

THE HANDLING OF SHUCKED OYSTERS

THE HANDLING OF SHUCKED OYSTERS Carleton Bates CopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.6.9.987 Published Online: August 30, 2011

THE BACTERIOLOGICAL EXAMINATIONS OF SHUCKED AND SHELL OYSTERS.

During the last quarter of a century rapid developments have taken place along all lines of sanitary science, and nowhere is this progress more noticeable and striking than in the realm of food bacteriology. Since the passage of the Pure Food and Drugs Act in 1906, the need of bacteriology as applied to sanitation has been amply demonstrated. This is particularly true in connection with the production, care, and handling of all kinds of food material, both in their raw and in their finished state. The question as to the possibility of oysters and other shell-fish becoming contaminated with sewage-polluted water was one of the first problems to receive consideration after the passage of the Food Law. At the solicitation of a committee representing the North American Oyster Growers and Dealers Association, Dr. H. W. Wiley, Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, arranged to have the necessary investigation made to study the whole oyster situation. Various phases of the industry were taken up and systematically considered in detail. The writer was instructed to take up the industry from the standpoint of the bacteriologistjt From the sanitary point of view the ruling of the Food and Drug Inspection Board made it unlawful to ship or sell in interstate commerce oysters or other shell-fish taken from polluted beds. This order also made it unlawful to sell or ship in interstate commerce oysters or other shell-fish which have beccme polluted because of being packed under insanitary conditions or being placed in unclean receptacles. It was further considered unlawful to ship or sell in interstate commerce shucked oysters to which water has been added, either directly or in the form of melted ice. Food Inspection Decision No. 121, an amendment to F. I. D.