communities and industries has overrun formerly valuable oyster-growing areas. Of greater importance are the multitude of biological enemies. Starfish, drills, mud worms, boring sponge, large predators such as drumfish and crabs, and, worst of all, several microscopic organisms have weakened or killed uncounted millions of oysters of all ages.

Adverse ecological conditions have eliminated millions more. Hurricanes and lesser coastal storms, for example, have covered and destroyed hundreds of acres of marketable oysters, and less dramatic but almost as extensive damage especially in the Southern States, has resulted when the runoff following heavy rains has made the waters over the oyster beds

too fresh for oyster survival. Silting is another hazard, sometimes resulting from heavy runoff, and in some areas as a side effect of dredging operations.

Thus, the industry, particularly that of the Central and North Atlantic Regions, has suffered a continued decline in the harvest of oysters and the production of shucked oysters. In 1958, the last year for which complete records are available, New England produced only 0.5 percent and the Middle Atlantic 8 percent of the total quantity of shucked oysters. The most recent data available, for 1960, show that the production in the Middle Atlantic states was only 2.4 percent. In most areas, surviving oysters are so sparsely distributed that it is no longer economical to attempt their harvest. Indirectly, this may result in the development of a resistant stock and recovery of the oyster fishery.

These drastic losses in production in the North have made the Chesapeake Bay, and more especially the South Atlantic and Gulf the principal source of supply of our "Eastern" oyster. As can be seen in the table, the oyster production for 1960 for those regions not only represents a greater proportion of the remaining production but the actual level of production has been raised to new high levels. The percentage of the total production coming from those two regions increased from 24 percent in 1958 to an unprecedented 41 percent in 1960.