GROWTH OF OYSTERS WITH DAMAGED SHELL-EDGES

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Abstract
Experiments conducted during 4 growing seasons in Milford Harbor, Connecticut on adult oysters, Crassostrea virginica. varying in length from approximately 70.0 to 115.0 mm, showed that oysters, the shell-edges of which were broken off, compensate for the loss in length by forming new shell at a more rapid rate than undamaged oysters kept under identical conditions. However, damage to shells does not stimulate oysters to grow at an accelerated rate during the entire part of the growing period confined between the date of damage and the beginning of hibernation. As a rule, immediately after the damage the oysters begin to grow rapidly to compensate for the loss and after that is achieved, they grow at the usual rate comparable to that of the control oysters. No relationship was found between the amount of shell removed and the length reached by the end of the season. The ability of oysters to repair broken shell-edges and, following that, to reach the same length as the control oysters remains the same regardless of when during the growing season (April 8 - Sept. 7) the shells are broken. Experiments also suggested that breakage of shell-edges is repaired by growth of the same pattern irrespective of whether it is length of width that is involved in the damage.

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