The Romance of Norwalk

The dredging of oysters is a business, all of its own. In shallow waters, oyster tongs are used. These are like two long tined rakes, hinged so as to open and close like shears. In deeper waters, in the Norwalk waters, steam dredges are used. The dredge is a rectangular iron framework about four feet across with sharp edges, or with long teeth on one side, while attached to the other is a large open work bag of cord and iron. The dredge is dragged over the bottom, the teeth or sharp edges tearing the oysters loose, when they are caught up in the bag and brought to the surface. After dredging, oysters are taken to the shucking houses here from where they are shipped to various parts of the country. Few go to New York nowadays. Oyster cultivation is not without its troubles. Less than one egg in a million develops into a mature oyster. Why? Because of: 1. Changes in temperature of the water, killing the young. 2. Scarity of food. 3. Changes in salinity of water. 4. Overcrowding. 5. Stagnant water. 6. Smothering by mud. 7. Excess of fresh water. 8. Lack of suitable material to which young can attach. 9. Miscal¬ culation on part of oysterman. He may have laid his shells so early that they became covered with slime and the young could not take hold; he may have laid them too late, past OYSTER INDUSTRY 345 spawning time. The best spawning time in any locality lasts but a few days, perhaps two weeks, io. Destruction by other water animals: drills, winkles, and starfish. 11. Pollu¬ tion of the water by sewage. 12. Pollution of the water by industrial waste. EATING - SPAWNING Have you ever been bitten by an oyster? If not that is one experience still in store for you. Because they do bite. If you don’t believe it, steal up very quietly on an oyster some fine day about flood tide, for then you will find the bivalves eating. The oyster while consuming its meal, opens its shell about half an inch. Should you place your finger between the two shells you would receive a painfully smart nip if you didn’t lose the top of the digit altogether, for the oyster, on the slightest approach of danger, shuts up as fast and as hard as it can bring the sides of its house together. If the oyster has a definite time for eating, as old oyster- men in this vicinity claim, then it has a still more definite time for spawning, for setting, for growing. The time be¬ tween the fertilization of the oyster egg and the setting is about two weeks. Another three weeks, in these waters, is required to bring the spat to 1-4 inch in diameter. The spat should have attained this size early in September to be commercially valuable and able to withstand severe storms which may reach the bottom. Spawning in Norwalk waters occurs during the months of July and August. Sets inshore usually may be found any time up to about August 6 or 8 ; offshore, until September 15 or even 20. The dif¬ ference in time is caused by the difference in temperature. The water inside the Norwalk islands is 4, 6 or 10 degrees warmer than that outside, on the offshore oyster beds. The warmer it is, the sooner the sets appears. Sometimes you will hear a local oysterman say that he has a “good bottom set.” By this he means a set that did not require a cultch of shells but attached itself to the clean 346 ROMANCE OF NORWALK grains of sand. The bottom sets are easy to handle for they do not later have to be broken apart as is the case when the spat clings by the thousands to old oyster shells. Spat will cling to almost anything smooth and clean. Not long ago one of the local oystermen pulled up an automobile tire which had evidently been fastened to the side of some boat and had fallen off. The tire, which was on one of his oyster beds, was dredged up with a portion of the oyster bottom. Thousands of spat clung to the tire, in fact it was so covered it was difficult to find out to what the tiny oysters were clinging. Another oysterman pulled up a great boot from his grounds. This too was covered. Inshore lots, those in the mouths of rivers and close in the harbor shores, are much more desirable for young oys¬ ter sets than are the offshore lots. Unfortunately, due to the large amount of industrial waste and sewage which has in the past been daily poured into the Norwalk river and harbor, the beds close to the shore have become practically worthless. It is expected this unfortunate condition will be remedied by the new sewage disposal plant. At least as far as the sewage problem is concerned. In warm, ordinary summer weather, spawning begins on the inshore lots several weeks before the limit set, so that spawning here has a good chance of being effective. Norwalk would have an immense oyster business today if it were possible for her oystermen to use the inshore lots, that is lots within 3-4 of a mile or even a mile off shore, to advantage. In the early days of almost pristine purity of the waters in this vicinity, the Connecticut oysters bore an excellent reputation for edibility and were readily and profitably marketable. The principal supply and all the more highly prized varieties came from the harbors, small stream- fed bays and the lower reaches of the rivers, “inshore lots.” The oysters then were noted for their fine flavor and fat meats. As the industrial and sewage pollution increased in these estuaries, the quality of the oysters deteriorated. Growing OYSTER INDUSTRY 347 became more and more difficult and finally ceased in the rivers and harbors of Connecticut towns. With the general passing of harbor and river production came the failure of sets, and with the failure of the sets came such an extended depletion of sound areas that the chance of good “sets” from the spawning of Sound oysters was drastically reduced. “Obviously,” it was stated by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries in its 1923 report on the situation in Connecticut, “if the Connecticut oyster industry is to be kept going, either ef¬ fective estuarial spawning beds must be maintained or oyster planting in the sound must be of such a type that reasonably good sets may occur at reasonably frequent intervals. Offshore lots, those at some distance out in the sound, frequently possess some advantages over inshore lots as holding grounds. Otherwise with their increased depth and other drawbacks they would not be kept stocked with oysters when inshore lots were available. In addition from the fun¬ damental standpoint of seed produce, that is as a location for oysters to produce the great and early abundance of larvae necessary for heavy and sufficiently early sets, they are al¬ most hopeless. EARLY OYSTER LAWS The oyster industry in Norwalk commenced back in the time of the red man. He it was who discovered that when fish and game were scarce, the sea might still be depended upon to provide the means of sustenance in the form of oysters. Along the Norwalk shores, great quantities of oyster shells left by the Indians have been discovered. At Wilson Point, the digging of new cellars has revealed numerous Indian graves, packed with shells, as previously noted in this history. Oscar Mills of Highland ave., says that in the vicinity of Roton Brook, Wilson Cove, he has found oyster shell banks six and eight feet thick. Oyster Shell Point, was once famous as an oystering ground, it ROMANCE OF NORWALK 348 having been said that the early Norwalkers enjoyed some of their first bivalves here. When the white man arrived on the scene, he learned of the edibility of the oyster from his red brother. What he did not learn was conservation of the supply, or propagation of more. The inevitable resulted. Prior to the year 1784, there was little restriction of any kind in the oyster industry in Connecticut. The state had done nothing except to pass a law giving each coast town the right to regulate its own fisheries. Norwalk as early as December 4, 1721, saw the necessity of curbing the unchecked plundering of the oyster beds here, by any and all peoples, and passed a law prohibit¬ ing all “excepting the proper inhabitants of ye town, rakeing and gathering oysters within ye harbor.” About 1800, a few enterprising local oystermen tried planting. Up to this time, no one had thought of such a thing, all seeming to be of the opinion that the oyster beds were inexhaustible like bottomless wells. Between 1800 and 1825, arose a business in opening oysters and transporting them. Salesmen from South Norwalk and from Stamford toured the interior country on “spring wagons” selling their wares, sometimes for cash, more often for butter, pork, grain, cloth or even brooms. In 1821 a Connecticut statute provided that towns along the coast could make by-laws regulating fisheries for oysters and clams. The principal use made of this power was to enact provisions for a closed season, a period of time during the summer, in the spawning and setting season, when oys¬ ters could not be taken from the waters. In 1830, the state legislature provided that no oyster permits whatever should be issued during the closed season. In 1842, the state had got as far as fixing the closed time as being from March 1 to November 21, an unusually long period. During these years Norwalk had been quietly making her own closed sea¬ son laws, the first appearing on the books under date of December 16, 1805, when inhabitants were forbidden with¬ out permission of a justice of the peace, to take any oysters OYSTER INDUSTRY 349 after the first day of May until the first day of September under penalty of $5.