In 1966 Congress passed the National Sea Grant College Program Act to promote marine research, education, and extension services in institutions along the nation's ocean and Great Lakes coasts. In Maryland a Sea Grant Program -- a partnership among federal and state governments, universities, and industries -- began in 1977, and in 1982 the University of Maryland was named the nation's seventeenth Sea Grant College. The Maryland Sea Grant College focuses its efforts on the Chesapeake Bay, with emphasis on the marine concerns of fisheries, seafood technology, and environmental quality. The first comprehensive review of the biology of the eastern oyster in more than thirty years. The twenty-one chapters synthesize every aspect of oyster biology -- for instance, general anatomy, physiology, the circulatory system, reproduction, genetics, diseases -- and issues related to management and aquaculture.

Productive oyster reefs in Mississippi Sound are subject to seasonal floodwaters. In 1945, lowered salinity caused mass mortality on the reefs. The mortality at that time was attributed to fresh water discharged from the Bonnet Carre spillway on the Mississippi River. This report discusses the biological and hydrographic data collected during the flood period in 1950. Comparison of 1950 with previous years indicates that salinity levels in Mississippi Sound result from a combination of factors, no one of which can reasonably be cited as the cause of the oyster mortalities.