712 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



aiid of the important measures taken to protect this important food product. Every part of this 

 lengthy historical sketch contains facts worthy of consideration in connection with our own 

 fishery, but want of space forbids our reproducing here more than that portion bearing upon the 

 period from 1820 to the date of publication of the report. This, however, is the part of most 

 value for our consideration, as it contains conclusive evidence of the possible decrease in the 

 abundance of lobsters, which many of our fishermen have been led to deny, and also discusses the 

 probable causes of such decrease, and the eifects of legislation in preventing it and in renewing 

 the supply. 



Professor Boeck's report is as follows : 



"The number of lobsters exported in 1821 and 1822 amounted to over a million a year, and 

 increased still more during the following years, although it was not so large in 1823 and 1824, on 

 account of the unfavorable weather. From 1825 to 1830 the average number of lobsters exported 

 annually was 1,268,000, and in 1827 and 1828 the highest number was reached, viz., 1,500,000. 

 These large numbers, however, were caused not so much by the fisheries being just as productive, 

 or more so, in the old lobster stations, but by the circumstance that new English companies, seeing 

 the great profit to be derived from this trade, commenced to export lobsters from places from 

 which they had never been exported before. Thus, lobsters began to be exported in 1828 from 

 the district of Tonsberg, and from Sondmor in 1826, and during the two following years from 

 Molde and Ghristianssund. The exports from Stavanger and Egernsund meanwhile decreased 

 very much, having been reduced to 67,000 per annum in the latter place in 1827, when the exports 

 from the whole of Norway amounted to 1,429,703. After 1830 the exports began to decrease even 

 in the new districts, so that the annual average quantity of lobsters exported during the five 

 years 1831-'35 was only 640,000. The only places that kept the lobster trade alive were the new 

 districts, while all the old ones decreased rapidly, some of them to such a degree that according 

 to the governors' reports the lobster trade must be considered almost extinct in 1835. 



" When the attention of the fishermen was directed to this decrease of the lobsters in the old 

 districts, people began to be afraid that the poor fishermen would entirely lose this means of 

 earning a living; and it was supposed that the decrease was chiefly due to the fisheries being 

 carried on during the spawning season of the lobster. In 1830 Mr. T. Lundsgaard, member of the 

 Storthing (Norwegian Parliament), therefore made the motion to pass a law forbidding the catch- 

 ing or exporting of lobsters from June 15 to October 1. The committee which had this matter 

 in charge proposed that the motion should be laid on the table, because Mr. Lundsgaard had not 

 produced any information which might enable the committee to judge with certainty to what 

 extent this dreaded decrease of the fisheries really existed, and whether the evil could be remedied 

 by the measures that were proposed. The committee likewise thought that such a measure would 

 be too great an encroachment on the rights of many places on the coast, taking away from these 

 regions their only source of income. The Government, however, thought that the matter was of 

 great importance; and as the report of the committee showed that only want of information had 

 prevented any action being taken, it requested those districts in which the lobster fisheries were 

 carried on. to have the matter examined by the local officers and other competent men, and to send 

 in a report stating whether it would be useful to pass a law on the subject; and, if so, to state the 

 objections to Mr. Luudsgaard's proposition. All the reports which reached the Government in 

 answer to this request agreed that the lobsters had decreased in size, but some supposed that the 

 great masses of spring herring coming near the coast might have had an influence on it, or that 

 this decrease in the size of the lobsters might be caused by their young ones, being disturbed by 

 the cutting of seaweeds for manure ; others advised not to pass any law against exporting lobsters 



