INSHORE FISHERIES 



237 



age price per pound has increased from 1.9 cents in 1880 to 

 10.9 cents in 1905. 



The table given below shows important data respecting 

 the lobster fishery of Maine for certain years : l 



The value of the lobster fishery of Maine for the year 

 1906 was $1,640,646, the number of men engaged was 

 2,672, and the average stock per man was $614. The 

 average weight of lobsters taken in 1905 was slightly over 

 one and one-half pounds each. From 1897 to 1907, the 

 total number of lobsters caught in Maine was 70,057,949. 



Although the lobster fishery is prosecuted from Maine 

 to Delaware, it has always been comparatively unimportant 

 outside of New England. In 1900, in the states of New 

 York, New Jersey and Delaware only 109 persons were 

 engaged in the fishery, and the catch was only 200,600 

 pounds, valued at $27,960. In New England the lobster 

 fishery reached its climax in 1889, when 30,449,693 pounds 

 of lobsters were taken, valued at $833,736. The apportion- 

 ment of the New England lobster fishery among the five 



i Compiled from Cobb, The Lobster Fishery of Maine, p. 257 ; 

 Maine Report for 1905 and 1906. 



