HC Deb 25 April 1963 vol 676 cc563-72

Motion made, and Question proposed. That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. F. Pearson.]

10.20 p.m.

Mr. Brian Harrison (Maldon)

I am glad to have this opportunity of briefly raising the plight of the oyster industry in the United Kingdom. It is an industry which has suffered considerably in the last few months. This is not the first time that its plight has been discussed in the House. Not only has it been the subject of part of a Royal Commission, but last century a Select Committee looked into the reasons for the scarcity of oysters, and detailed regulations and measures designed to try to improve the condition of the oyster beds around our coasts.

In the last severe winter the oyster beds were subjected to extremely severe cold, to acute physical disturbance from ice floes and to silting over when the oysters were in a very weak condition and unable to move and expel the mud which had clogged up their gills, thus preventing them from feeding. Unfortunately, at the same time some of the diseases which affect the oyster, including a number of pests like American whelk tingle and the slipper limpet, attacked those oysters which managed to survive the cold weather.

A number of hon. Members with coastal constituencies will be conscious of the problems being faced by those who make their living from cultivating oysters. My hon. Friend the Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health has been putting forward the case of the oyster cultivators in certain quarters. My hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Mr. Buck) has also been an exponent of the case for assisting the oyster. In fact, it was as a result of a Question he asked that this opportunity has come to me to raise the matter tonight.

The position of the industry six months ago was this. The spatting had been most encouraging over the previous few years with the natives. Portuguese oysters which had been brought in had had two years under cultivation in the local beds and were in prime condition. It looked as though, for the first time for many years, a large number of oysters would be available and that really aggressive selling would have to be undertaken.

Whether the price of oysters would have got as low as it did last century—to as little as 4d. per 100—I cannot say, but the tragedy which hit these cultivators is that, with the prospect of a good season, they suddenly found their livelihood taken away from them, owing to the deprivations of the weather and disease. There is another aspect of the effects of the bad season on the industry which should not be overlooked. This is not necessarily directly concerned with the Department represented by my hon. Friend who will reply to this debate.

Originally, the oyster industry was looked after by the Board of Trade, and it would be considerably in the Board of Trade's interest to see to certain aspects of the industry's prospects in the next few years. Within five years the Scheldt Delta will be closed, and the most productive oyster beds in the Low Country will consequently be silted up. There would then inevitably be a large market in both Belgium and France for oysters from the coast of Britain. With Government encouragement at this time it would be possible, by purchasing two-year-old Portuguese oysters and by conserving and improving the beds of the native oysters, to take advantage of this export trade to the Continent of Europe.

I realise that my hon. Friend is very severely limited in the help he can give quickly to the industry, and help within the next week or so is essential, because the kill has been enormous. It is thought that in some beds only one oyster in a hundred is surviving, and in many other oyster beds in my constituency the story is of 60 per cent., 70 per cent. and 80 per cent. of the oysters being killed over the last six months.

If something is done quickly, we can this year begin rehabilitating the beds with transplanted young oysters that can feed on the more salubrious mud of the English coastline, and get that distinctive and delightful flavour that charms our palates. But, as I say, something must be done very quickly. If it is not done quickly, I fear that not only may we lose this industry but lose for ever those people who have been concerned with cultivating the oysters round our coasts. These are not men of large resources but men who, through good and bad times, have built up their industry again since the war. They had the prospect recently of a very good season or so ahead of them, but are now in a really serious plight. Those to whom I spoke last weekend were very afraid that they would not be able to remain in the industry unless they got some help.

My hon. Friend could and should give help under Section 26 of the Sea Fish Industry Act, 1962. These oysters are suffering from hypothermia as well as from the deprivations of a number of parasitical pests, and the industry could be helped by measures, for which a grant can be made by my hon. Friend's Ministry, to get rid of these pests and to help with the restocking of those fields that have been upset by their action. This is specifically stated in Section 26 as being within my hon. Friend's powers, and I hope that he will find some way by which help can be given to get rid of the parasites on the fields, and to remove the shells of the dead oysters now cluttering up the fields which are increasing the cost of harvesting the few oysters that survive and making it more difficult for the live oysters to get their feed out of the mud. I ask my hon. Friend to look with sympathy not only on the plight of the oyster—which has suffered a death never intended for it, since, to my mind, there is only one death which is suitable for an oyster—but also on the very serious plight of the people whose livelihood is tied up in this ancient industry which has traditionally been part of coastal operations in the United Kingdom since Roman times.

10.30 p.m.

Mr. Antony Buck (Colchester)

I am very glad to have the opportunity to contribute briefly to this short and important debate. The plight of the oyster industry cannot be gainsaid. If any hon. Member has the slightest doubt about it, I here and now invite him to come and visit me—I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Maldon (Mr. B. Harrison) would offer the same invitation—and come, say, to West Mersea and see there or in the Pyefleet Channel a situation which is nothing short of tragic.

I recently spent a long afternoon with the oystermen of West Mersea, and I found an appalling state of affairs. At a Press conference following my visit to the oystermen, I described the dredges which were brought up from the bed as revealing a "stinking mass of putridity." That is, in truth, what was revealed. These fine oysters have been killed, and now there is left a rotting mass. At West Mersea, the casualty rate among the oysters is, for the natives, about 90 per cent. dead and, for the Portuguese, about 95 per cent. dead.

I should not like it to be thought that any of the few oysters from West Mersea or from Pyefleet Channel which are on the market axe in any way contaminated. They certainly are not. This should be emphasised. If any hon. Member is fortunate enough to be invited to taste these delicious molluscs, he need have no fear on that score; the oysters will be perfectly all right, and they will have been kept for a considerable period in water completely germ-free so that no one need have any trepidation about the quality or condition of those which remain.

The situation is the same in the Pye fleet Channel, whence come the historic Colchester native oysters, although among them the death rate is even worse, with 99 per cent. or so of the oysters killed. Indeed, a headline in one of the local newspapers of Colchester today put the position very succinctly— The industry can fold up without cash. That is, in fact, a quite likely event. And what a tragedy it would be. It would be tragic in human terms, from a social point of view, for all those who would lose their livelihood. On a slightly more sentimental basis, it would be a tragedy if one were to see at West Mersea the end of an industry which has gone on for generations among such families as the Mussetts, the Frenches, the Wolffs, the Banks, the Hempsteads and the Stokers. The long connection of some of these people with the oyster trade may soon be severed unless help comes.

In adversity, ancient rivalries are forgotten. I have the authority of my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury (Sir L. Thomas), who has the privilege of representing Whitstable, to say that today the Whitstable oyster is in the same plight as the Colchester oyster. As the Member for Colchester, I am glad to have the opportunity to plead the cause of the Whitstable oyster. My hon. Friend would have been here tonight to plead that cause himself but for the fact that he is suffering from bronchitis.

The position, as I say, cannot be gainsaid. The survey which my Friend has caused to be undertaken will, no doubt, reveal the tragic situation of the industry. Perhaps it may be said that everybody has been affected by the cold weather—why should the oyster fishermen be helped? This is not just a case of lowered profit such as a large part of industry generally has suffered. This is real tragedy, and in times of tragedy it is appropriate that the Government should give assistance. In the year of the great flood, 1953, when far less havoc was wreaked among the oyster beds, about 50 per cent. of the loss was recovered from flood relief funds. That was part of a great national disaster and, therefore, the small man was not forgotten. Here, however, is a much greater disaster, albeit for a smaller number of people, and assistance should not be denied to them. As my hon. Friend the Member for Maldon has said, it must come quickly.

I am sure that my hon. Friend the Joint Parliamentary Secretary recognises the strong case of the oyster industry and that he will do all he can to help it under his powers under the Act to which my hon. Friend the Member for Maldon has referred. Everything possible must be given by way of help towards the clearing of the beds and helping the oysters to recover from the parasites which attack them in their low state, and towards restocking.

If my hon. Friend does not have sufficient power under the Act to render full assistance, I am sure that the House would assist him to gain increased powers to ensure that this ancient industry, which has been sustained since Roman times and which attracted the Romans to our shores, does not go under but has a future as long as its past, if not longer.

10.36 p.m.

The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. James Scott-Hopkins)

I am grateful to my hon. Friends the Members for Maldon (Mr. B. Harrison) and for Colchester (Mr. Buck) for bringing this matter to the attention of the House. In addition, I have been in correspondence with my hon. Friend the Member for Essex, South-East (Mr. Braine), who also has been extremely concerned about the position of the oystermen in his constituency, and with other hon. Members who are concerned with this matter.

I cannot but agree with my hon. Friends when they say that mortalities have been heavy during the recent frosts. The information collected by our fisheries laboratory at Burnham-on-Crouch bears out that there have, indeed, been the losses mentioned tonight of 80 per cent. and, in some cases, 90 per cent. It seems that only in Cornwall, which is the part of the country from which I come, has the cold weather had less effect than elsewhere and the mortality has been that of a normal winter, of about 15 per cent.

I accept that this is a disaster. It comes at a most unfortunate time for the industry. The production of the young oyster is always a rather chancy business in our waters, although during the last five years we have been doing better than before. As my hon. Friend the Member for Maldon remarked, things have been getting brighter over the last five years than at any time since, I think, 1939.

New capital has been going into the industry and modern improvements—for example, the use of power dredges—have come into wider use and helped to modernise the industry with more up-to-date techniques. There has been hopes for export, particularly since the reclamation of the Scheldt Estuary is likely to reduce considerably the export of oysters from Holland, thus giving greater opportunity to our own people. There were, therefore, bright prospects, but these have been dashed by the bad frosts and reduced to a low level.

Nevertheless, we must look at the matter in perspective. As my hon. Friends have said, there has been a considerable decline of the industry over the last hundred years since the days when it was booming. The decline has been largely due to the spread of foreign pests, chiefly slipper limpets and American tingle, aided by the cessation of cultivation during two world wars and other setbacks, including earlier cold winters.

One of those pests, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Maldon referred—the predatory American oyster drill or tingle, which looks like a whelk and can drill holes in oysters—is restricted to the coasts of Essex and Kent. We are hoping to keep it there and, by the use of trapping and other techniques devised by our scientists, we expect that oyster planters will be able to reduce its numbers.

The other pest is the American slipper limpet, which takes the place of the oysters in the beds and outbreeds them. As my hon. Friend also said, these American slipper limpets have proved resistant to the cold weather. The result of its superiority in taking food and space from oysters has been that in some areas there are 40 tons of slipper limpets to the acre of oyster bed.

All this shows that the industry is subject to fluctuations. The figures do not show that cold winters, particularly the bad ones of 1928 and 1947, had any significant effect on the landings of oysters. I agree that 1963 may be different, and we have, therefore, given careful consideration to what, if anything, can be done.

Perhaps I might give my hon. Friends our decision and then discuss in more detail the reasons for it. After a great deal of consideration we have come to the conclusion that we cannot give special grants towards the restoration of oyster fisheries on account of the losses during the bad weather. We can, however, and propose to, give grants under the Sea Fish Industry Act, 1962, to help towards the revival of oyster beds badly infested by disease.

I am sure that hon. Members will realise that the oyster industry, which is, after all, a fairly small one with a production of about £100,000 a year, cannot be treated in isolation from others. Some shell fish, such as cockles, and mussels to a certain extent, have also suffered from the bad weather, as indeed have some sections of agriculture, and, even more severely, some sections of the horticulture industry. It appeared to us, therefore, that it would be wrong to single out this one industry for assistance because of the bad weather. I am therefore bound to say that there is no prospect of Government funds being made available solely to deal with the loss of oysters due to the bad weather during this winter.

I fully appreciate the arguments put forward by my hon. Friends, but, even if we could help with money, a contrac- tion of the industry for some years to come is inevitable. The hard winter has reduced stocks of oysters suitable for replanting not only here but elsewhere, particularly in France. It seems that there will be nothing like enough oysters to go round, and this must in itself force some contraction in the industry for the time being at least.

But, as my hon. Friend the Member for Maldon said, provision was made in the Sea Fish Industry Act, 1962, for assistance towards the revival of badly infested oyster beds by the cleansing of them from pests and diseases and restocking. The purpose was mainly to reduce the quantities of slipper limpets which have to be dealt with by dredging the beds and destroying the limpets.

I am glad to be able to announce that clearance operations of this sort are now to receive grant aid, and the broad outline of the scheme is that anyone who has an exclusive right to take oysters, or who has control of an oyster fishery by virtue of an Order made under Part 3 of the Sea Fisheries Act, 1868, or the Oyster and Mussel Fisheries Act, 1866, may apply for assistance.

A grant of £75 an acre towards the cleansing of the beds will be given. I estimate this to be about 50 per cent. of the cost of efficient methods of cleaning. Further grants will be given of from £75 to £150 per acre towards restocking with oysters of approved origin.

The grant towards the cost of oysters for relaying cannot be based on any exact figures because of variations in prices, and these prices are, of course, rising at the moment because of the shortage which the hard weather has brought about, but as originally calculated they were roughly half of the cost of the minimum number to be relayed, taken as 25,000 per acre, with a decreasing proportion of grant on the heavier rates of stocking, which are of course more profitable to the oyster planters. Leaflets giving details of the grant will be made available tomorrow.

I realise that this is of no direct help to those planters who have suffered from frost, and I have explained my reasons for this, but they will be given indirect help in this way, particularly in the South-East where they were the worst hit by the weather and which is the area most affected by these diseases. But there is another form of assistance available to oyster fishermen of which I am sure they are not always aware. They are eligible for assistance from the White Fish Authority, because they are inshore fishermen, and they can get grants of up to 30 per cent. and loans of up to 55 per cent. of cost for the construction of new vessels and for the provision of new engines for old vessels. Loans can also be obtained up to certain limits for the provision of second-hand vessels with gear. This should be helpful to those firms attempting to modernise themselves.

Over and above that, we are giving a great deal of help to the industry through our research centre at Burnham-on-Crouch.

Mr. B. Harrison

Hear, hear.

Mr. Scott-Hopkins

I am glad that my hon. Friend says "Hear, hear", because I agree with him that it is doing an exceptional amount of good work and is of great assistance to the industry and has been in the past. It is particularly important that when trouble and disaster have overtaken this industry we can look to this research laboratory to help it to meet the difficult conditions that lie ahead.

Everyone who is informed about the cultivation of oysters knows of the work done there on the means of controlling pests and growing oysters. There are good prospects of techniques being worked out by our scientists for the artificial production of young oysters in tanks to overcome the uncertainty of natural spatfall in our conditions. At the present moment the young oysters produced by these methods are too expensive for commercial use, but we confidently expect that, with the improvement of techniques, the price will be brought down.

Provision was made in the Sea Fish Industry Act, 1962, to control the relaying of oysters, particularly from abroad, so that the American tingle and the American slipper limpet should be prevented from spreading, and the appearance of new foreign pests discouraged. We are about to discuss these regulations with the industry, and the regulations should be made soon afterwards. These will help to create the conditions in which go-ahead oystermen can expand production once more.

These kinds of help add up to a considerable Governmental contribution, in a form which is well suited to the needs of a private enterprise industry made up of small firms. I am sure that the industry as a whole will make full use of the assistance which is being provided and will by its efforts resume the promising start towards renewal of the fisheries which has been unfortunately, but, I am sure, temporarily checked by a single disastrous winter.

I echo the words of my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester that any oysters that might find their way on to the market from this part of our coast will be completely free of any taint because of the bad weather, and that people need not worry about eating them. I sincerely hope that they will be able to find some.

The Government are doing all they can to help the industry in these conditions. The aid given is generous in its content and will go a long way towards helping the industry to get over what has been a disastrous winter. I am very sorry for the oystermen, and I can assure them that we are doing as much as we can to help them.

Mr. B. Harrison

I thank my hon. Friend for what will be a very considerable help—

Mr. Deputy-Speaker (Sir William Anstnither-Gray)

Order The hon. Member would be in order in asking a question, but not in making a second speech.

Mr. Buck

In that case, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, may I ask my hon. Friend if he is aware that what he has announced will cause considerable satisfaction? It might not do everything that is required, but it will go a considerable way and cause great satisfaction.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at Twelve Minutes to Eleven o'clock.