Haven, Dexter S.

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College of William & Mary: W&M Publish

W&M ScholarWorks Reports 2-1-1982 A Report on the Jail Island Repletion Area in the James River Dexter S. Haven Virginia Institute of Marine Science Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/reports  Part of the Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons Recommended Citation Haven, D. S. (1982) A Report on the Jail Island Repletion Area in the James River. Marine Resource Report No. 82-3. Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary. http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/m2-gg30-g472 This Report is brought to you for free and open access by W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Reports by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact scholarworks@wm.edu. f ILE COPY A Report on the Jail Island Repletion Area in the James River By Dexter S. Haven Virginia Institute of Marine Science and School of Marine Science, The College of William and Mary Gloucester Point, Virginia 23062 February, 1982 Virginia Marine Resource Report //82-3 • . ' Glouout.er Point, VllslD1a 28062 CHARTERED 1693 COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY VIRGINIA INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCE SCHOOL OF MARINE SCIENCE February 19, 1982 Honorable James E. Douglas, Jr. Virginia Marine Resources Connnission P.O. Box 756 Newport News, Virginia 23607 Dear Connnissioner Douglas: Phone (804) 642-2111 This report is in response to your memorandmn of 5 February 1982 which concerns the Jail Island repletion area (632 acres) in the James River. In reviewing information for this report, we have reviewed our spatfall studies of the area and have determined bottom type from our Baylor Survey study. Moreover, there was an extensive discussion of the area at the Repletion meeting on February 17, 1982. The Jail Island management area does grow market-sized oysters and meat quality is often above average for the James, especially during April and May. Most of the seed areas in the mid and upper James do not do this. The area is shallow (6 ft or less) and the natural bottom is largely shelly-sand or shelly-mud, except where shells or oysters have been planted. This management area has received much shell starting in 1969, and in 1972 seed oysters from Deep Water Shoal were planted there. About 60,000 bushels of shell were planted there in 1980. This area is inshore of Wreck Shoal and on the average it receives a set which is slightly lower than the Wreck Shoal area. It appears that the 60,000 bushels of shells planted there in 1980 received an exceptional heavy strike; probably some of the older shells and seed planted in previous years also received a good set. It now appears that the area is used as a good source of market-sized oysters, and as a good source of high count seed. My opinion is that the area should remain as a seed area until the end of the 1982 season. When the season closes the VMRC should survey the area to determine how much high count seed remains and if large oysters are abundant. Honorable James E. Douglas. Jr. February 19, 1982 Page 2 If the latter situation is the case and most of the high count seed has been harvested, I would recommend the Commission consider setting the area aside as a clean cull area. My reasons follow: The James has many areas suitable for growing seed on planted shell. It has only a few areas which are as suitable as the Jail Island area for growing oysters to market size. I also recommend that the status of the Jail Island area (as a seed, "soup" or market oyster area) be reconsidered annually prior to each season. DSH/gbr cc Dr. Herbert Austin Sincerely, Dexter S. Haven, Head, Department of Applied Biology 

A Report on the Jail Island Repletion Area in the James River

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A Report on the Jail Island Repletion Area in the James River

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