National Shellfisheries Association records

The origins of the National Shellfisheries Association (1) begin in 1909 with the creation of the National Association of Shellfish Commissioners (NASC). That same year, the organization held its first annual convention. In 1915, in an effort to include other fisheries in the organization, the NASC was renamed the National Association of Fisheries Commissioners (NAFC).

A separate organization, created to help individuals and companies within the oyster industry, was formed in 1908 and called the Oyster Growers and Dealers Association (OGDA). In 1929, the bonds between OGDA and the NAFC were such that the two groups began convening jointly. The following year, the NAFC formally reorganized as the National Shellfisheries Association (N.S.A.).

As OGDA began to grow in national prominence, it developed a political operating arm within the organization. This arm became known as the Oyster Institute of North America (OINA). This institute helped advocate and popularize the oyster as a food source, while also promoting the industry and the various issues affecting it. In 1937, the OINA joined OGDA and N.S.A. at their annual conventions.

By the late 1950s, there was increased activity by N.S.A. members on the western coast of North America. They created a West Coast Section of the N.S.A., which was formally organized in 1960 at a meeting of the Pacific Coast Oyster Growers Association (PCOGA) (2). To reflect its growing mission and the wider range of issues it dealt with, the OINA changed its name in 1973 to the Shellfish Institute of North America (SINA). The N.S.A., OGDA, and SINA continued to hold joint conventions until 1987, when the N.S.A. split from the other two groups.

Every three years, starting in 1989, the N.S.A. conventions are folded into the meetings of the World Aquaculture Society (WAS). This was the first year that the N.S.A. participated in these meetings as a full sponsor. Previously, the N.S.A. was an affiliate sponsor.

The N.S.A. is still a strong advocate for shellfish research and study. It continues its annual conventions as a means of getting together individuals within the shellfish community to discuss the important news of the day.

Notes:

(1) Information for this section was derived from: “Interview with Melbourne R. Carriker” (http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/Interviews/carriker_melbourne.html) and “In Memoriam: Melbourne R. Carriker” (http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2007/mar/carriker030407.html). In addition, some of this information is derived from the collection itself.

(2) The Pacific Coast Oyster Growers Association (PCOGA) appears to have become the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association (PCSGA). The Oyster Institute of North America (OINA) was likewise renamed the Shellfish Institute of North America (SINA).

Dr. Melbourne R. Carriker was born in 1915 in Santa Marta, Colombia, to Melbourne Armstrong Carriker and Carmela Fly Carriker. Carriker’s paternal grandparents also lived in Colombia, having emigrated from the United States. Carriker’s paternal grandfather moved to Colombia to help install telephone, telegraph, and electrical systems, and later, he founded a plantation in a coffee-growing region. Carriker’s father attended the University of Nebraska and was an ornithologist, collecting specimens of South American birds while in Colombia.

At the age of 12, Carriker and his family immigrated to the United States, settling in the town of Beachwood, New Jersey. Carriker’s father received a post at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and would occasionally return to South America for bird-collecting expeditions. Carriker’s grandparents remained on their plantation in Colombia. Inspired by his father, Carriker wished to attend Rutgers University to study ornithology under Dr. Leon Hausman. Upon arriving in New Brunswick and discovering that Dr. Hausman was no longer accepting students, Carriker opted to study mollusks under Dr. Thurlow C. Nelson, chairman of the zoology department.

After completing his studies at Rutgers in 1939, Carriker went to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to work towards his Ph.D. in biology, which he received in 1943. Following his studies, Carriker enlisted in the United States Navy, serving in the Aleutian Islands, Hawaii, and the Philippines. Upon his discharge from the service, Carriker returned to New Brunswick to take a faculty post at Rutgers.

Carriker remained in the zoology department at Rutgers University until 1954, leaving to take an appointment in the marine biology department at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Later, Carriker also worked at the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries laboratory in Oxford, Maryland; the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts; and, finally, the University of Delaware’s marine biology campus in Lewes, Delaware, from which he retired in 1985 after 12 years.

Dr. Melbourne R. Carriker was married to the former Meriel R. “Scottie” McAllister, with whom he had four sons, Eric, Bruce, Neal, and Robert. Melbourne Carriker succumbed to a massive stroke in 2007, passing away in Lewes, Delaware.

Nationally, Carriker was heavily involved in marine research, especially mollusks. One of the organizations which he immersed himself in was the National Shellfisheries Association (N.S.A.), eventually becoming its president (1957-1959) and, later, the group’s historian. He wrote Taming of the Oyster: A History of Evolving Shellfisheries and the National Shellfisheries Associaition, which detailed the organization’s history.