3-011-607 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Shellfish Supplies: oyster-boats dredging off Prestonpans, [Scotland], 1862. 'The Scottish oyster fisheries are not "cultivated." The Prestonpans or Newhaven fishermen trust entirely to the natural increase of the beds from the annual deposition of spawn. Now, nothing would be easier than for these Firth of Forth men to construct at suitable places a few artificial beds; in fact, the present excessive demand for oysters, which these men are remarkably fond of meeting, will in a short time so impoverish the breeding stock as to necessitate one or two new banks...As it requires a period of four years to grow an oyster up to marketable proportions, the beds could not be commenced too soon. They may be constructed of the simplest materials: a few boatloads of builders' debris...laid down in a part of the sea that is quite clear from mud, would form an excellent foundation...Millions of oysters could be grown on such a bed as this, and the spat of the celebrated "pandores" might he obtained in order to have a choice breed. The oyster is so enormously prolific that if only ten in every hundred were to arrive at maturity there would be no danger of a cessation in the supply although the demand were to become fourfold what it is at present. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.