

12— THE HABITS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOBSTER. AND THEIR 

 BEARING UPON ITS ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION. 



BY FRANCIS H. HERRICK, 

 Professor of Biology in Adelbert College. 



Wanton destruction has exterminated the wild buffalo of the plains, and indis- 

 criminate slaughter is threatening the fur-seal of the Pacific with a like fate. The 

 oyster beds of the Chesapeake, among the richest in the world, have been brought to 

 the verge of ruin by a lack of foresight and a blind trust in the resources of nature. 

 The same evil has overtaken the lobster, and to-day the fishery is declining. It has 

 already ceased to be profitable in many places, and the size of the lobsters has dimin- 

 ished. Too late, the lesson is being learned, that we can not forever reap the wild 

 harvests which we have not sown. "Where I could catch 500 lobsters in a day 

 twenty-five years ago," writes a lobsterman from Maine, "75 per day is now a large 

 catch." The same complaint is heard from nearly every point on the coast. Fisher- 

 men are not inclined to look beyond the demands of the present hour, and men in 

 general regard the ocean as inexhaustible in its animal life, as it is apparently limitless 

 in extent and fathomless in depth, forgetting that marine animals may be as restricted 

 in their distribution as terrestrial forms, and as nicely adjusted to their environment. 



Before we can deal intelligently with the problem of protecting an animal from 

 destruction, or of increasing its numbers, it is of the first importance that we become 

 thoroughly acquainted with the habits of the animal in question, with its distribution, 

 with the sources of its food at all seasons, with its method of breeding, with the devel- 

 opment of the young, and their habits from the time they leave the egg until they 

 are themselves able to propagate their kind. 



Until recently, the lobster, our largest and most important crustacean, econom- 

 ically considered, has been singularly neglected by naturalists, and a review of the 

 various measures which have been suggested or adopted for its protection in different 

 States points very clearly to the value of accurate knowledge. The fact that so 

 important a question as the breeding habits of the lobster should have remained for 

 so long a time a matter of guesswork, emphasizes the need of a thorough investiga- 

 tion of its habits and development. 



At the invitation of Hon. Marshall McDonald, U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries, 

 I undertook such a work four years ago, and have since given to it all the time which 

 could be spared from professional duties. During the summers I have enjoyed the 

 excellent facilities for research which are afforded by the U. S. Fish Commission station 

 at Woods Holl, Mass., and in August and September of this year I have been able to 

 extend my observations in the field to the coast of Maine, from Portland to Eastport. 

 There is only time to lay before the Congress some of the most significant and inter- 



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