798 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



4. THE ROCK-LOBSTER FISHERY. 



THE ROCK-LOBSTER FISHERY OF CALIFORNIA. 



GENERAL REVIEW. The rock-lobster, spiny-lobster, or salt-water crayfish (Panulirus inter- 

 ruptus) of the Pacific coast of the United States ranges from Santa Barbara, Cal., southward and is 

 taken for food at Santa Barbara, San Diego, Los Angeles, Wilmington, and other smaller places. 

 The San Francisco market is entirely supplied from Santa Barbara, whence large quantities are 

 shipped annually. Very few, if any, are exported from the State. As there are no regular markets 

 m the smaller places where it is sold, it is hawked through the streets with fish. It is captured in 

 dip-nets or in traps with a funnel-shaped entrance, similar to the lobster pots of the New England 

 coast. Fish is used as bait. This species is in season at San Francisco the entire year. The 

 following account of the fishery is from a report by Prof. D. S. Jordan. 



SANTA BARBARA. During the summer the salt-water crayfish live in shallow water, where 

 they are taken in a sort of dip-net anchored near the shore, with a piece of bait suspended above 

 the middle. In October they retire to deeper water and remain in the kelp during the winter, 

 when they are captured in lobster-pots. Fresh fish, especially bonito, makes the best bait, but 

 any flesh, fresh or salt, will answer. During the spawning season, which is in the early summer, 

 the flesh of the crayfish is less fat and less esteemed as food, but, nevertheless, it is eaten all 

 through the year. At this period it is also very abundant near shore, and a single person has 

 been able to secure 500 pounds in the space of two hours by means of dip-nets. They are some- 

 times taken in fish-seines. There is great danger of overfishing, especially in the spawning sea- 

 son. The average weight of those now taken is 3 to 4= pounds, or about twenty lobsters to a sack 

 of 75 pounds. Formerly, 11-pound individuals were taken about Santa Barbara, but such are 

 very scarce there now. 



Some of the crayfish caught at Santa Barbara are peddled through the streets at 10 cents 

 each, but the greater part are sent to San Francisco, where they are sold by commission mer- 

 chants, the net results being from 75 cents to $1 per sack. In summer great numbers spoil before 

 they can be disposed of. Five or six years ago crayfish were shipped from Santa Barbara to San 

 Francisco by only a single party, who was accustomed to send thirty or forty sacks by each 

 steamer sailing every five days. Now he sends only twenty to twenty-five sacks by each steamer 

 in summer, and a smaller quantity in winter, but three others have gone into the fishery and 

 together they do an increased business. About 180,000 pounds are taken annually at Santa 

 Barbara, the greater part of which, as stated above, are sent to San Francisco. The first ship- 

 ments to that place were made in 1872. 



In 1877 a cannery for crayfish was started in Santa Barbara, but it failed after the first sea- 

 son, as the managers were ignorant of the business. It is intended to make another start soon 

 under better management. 



The Chinese fishermen on Santa Cruz Island catch the crayfish, use the bodies for bait, and 

 dry the tails in the sun without salting or cooking. These dried tails are sent to San Francisco 

 and sold to the Chinese at about 15 cents a pound. 



Captain Larco, the principal crayfish dealer of Santa Barbara, states that he is positive some 

 law should be passed to protect the crayfish, at least during the spawning season, when large 

 quantities are destroyed every year. His views on this subject are very reasonable, and no doubt 



