The oyster industry forms a very important part of the marine fisheries of the United States. The market value of the products of the fisheries of this country (exclusive of Alaska) for the year 1908 was estimated by the Bureau of the Census1 at $54,030,630. The income derived from the oyster trade alone, for the same year, amounted to $15,713,000, or nearly one-third the value of the total fishery products of the country.
The American oyster, Ostrea virginia, is found along the entire Atlantic coast from Maine to Texas. Two local varieties of oysters are also found on the Pacific coast. But the center of the oyster trade in America is confined to the Atlantic and Gulf states. The value of the product from these latter states amounted to $15,019,360 for 1908, while the output from the Pacific states for the same period marketed $695,640. Twenty-one states are interested