How market demand for eastern oysters has affected management actionsin the industry

摘要

Before 1900, the consumer demand for eastern oysters was growing as the population of the United States grew. Managers directed that more boats, processing plants, and transportation systems be built. After 1900, the demand began a several-decade fall when the oyster-growing waters became contaminated with pollution. Consequently, in the early decades of the 1900's, most Long Island Sound (L.I.S.) company managers abandoned the business, and the managers in Delaware and Chesapeake Bays sold most of their shells rather than planting them on beds to produce oysters they would not be able to sell. During the 1960s, due to the absences of the Delaware and Chesapeake Bay oysters in markets, the demand rose a little, and the L.I.S. managers built a few hatcheries to produce more oysters and afterward took more aggressive steps to increase production by farming beds using natural sets. Since the 1960s, actions to increase oyster stocks in Chesapeake Bay have been limited due to a persistently weak market. The Gulf coast industry sells more than half of its oysters to markets in states on the east coast. Its managers would be faced with trying to preserve its economic viability if oyster production were to increase along the east coast and replace the Gulf coast oysters in these markets.