242 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



As the fisheries toward the end of the century declined very much, 

 Mr. Gjertsen, a Mandal merchant, in 171)0, proposed to the government 

 that it should forbid the fishermen to catch lobsters from July 1 till the 

 end of October, under a fine of $25. He drew attention to the constant 

 decrease in the number of lobsters, which he thought was solely owing 

 to the fact that they were caught during the season when they spawned 

 and sbed their shell. Although he did not seem to know anything of 

 Judge Lom's proposition of 1737, he had nevertheless arrived at the 

 same result, viz, that, if the numbers of the lobster are not to be dimin- 

 ished, they must be protected during the season when they spawn 

 and shed their shell. The government approved of this proposition 

 quite as little as of Lom's, thinking that such a prohibition of the fish- 

 eries at a certain season would reduce the income of the fishermen too 

 much, especially during poor years, and no one seems to have had an 

 idea that such a protection of the lobster would prove extremely useful. 



The European events from the beginning of the French revolution 

 seem not to have had much influence on the lobster-trade, which was 

 now in the bauds of the greatest maritime power, England. Even their 

 attack on Copenhagen in 1801 had only a temporary influence. 



The export, which had decreased very much toward the end of the cen- 

 tury, seems to have risen again somewhat during the first years of the 

 new century, so that from 1801 to 1S06 the annual average export was 

 315,000 ; 97,700 from the Bergen district, 174,300 from Stavanger and 

 Egerusund, 01,800 from the lobster-ports in the district of Lister and 

 Mandal, and a number from the district of Arendal, where people had 

 only begun to catch lobsters about this time. The increased number of 

 lobsters exported was owing more to the establishment of new lobster- 

 ports than to an increase of the number of lobsters in the old ones. On 

 account of the small number caught toward the end of the century, the 

 price of lobsters had risen, so that in 1804 about 2£ cents each were 

 paid for lobsters caught iu winter, and about 2 cents for those caught 

 in summer. The fishermen were now placed in a very favorable posi- 

 tion, and lobster-fishing was constantly extending beyond its old limits. 

 The year 1807, however, had a decided influence on this fishery and the 

 trade connected with it. After the attack of the English on Copenha- 

 gen and the consequent war, the export of lobsters ceased entirely, 

 and they were only caught to supply the home market, and partly to be 

 used as bait in the rich plaice fisheries, which at that time had been dis- 

 covered near Stavanger. These years of war for the country were years 

 of peace for the lobsters, and their number seems to have increased to* 

 such au extent that when the fisheries recommenced in 1815 they were 

 taken in enormous quantities, not only inside but even outside of the 

 baskets. The custom of the lobster-fishers getting from the traders not 

 only brandy, as well as twine to tie the claws of the lobsters so they 

 should not bite each other, but also clay pipes, which we find common 

 in the beginning of the eighteenth century, is also spoken of iu 1817 by 



