84 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES F[SH COMMISSION. 



berry' 1 has taken place for many years. The eggs are illegally scraped off with a 

 mitten or with the fingers, and thus allowed to perish by the millions, in order to 

 send a few more lobsters to market. 



The only ways open to secure an increase of the species are to protect the spawn 

 lobsters, or to protect the immature until they have a chance to reproduce, or to take 

 the eggs and rear them artificially. I will speak only of the latter expedient. 



We have seen that the eggs are carried and carefully protected by the female for 

 the space of ten or eleven months, and that the young receive no protection or fos- 

 terage from either parent, but swim near the surface, where they drift helplessly about, 

 subject to indiscriminate destruction from storms and other causes. To maintain the 

 species nature has made use of the common resource of producing a vastly greater 

 number of young than can possibly survive under natural conditions. In order to 

 keep the species at an equilibrium it would be only necessary for each pair to produce 

 in the natural term of their life two adults to take the place of the parents. Since 

 sexual females of the average size of lOi inches produce 11,000 eggs at each repro- 

 ductive period, there must be, in nature, a destruction of nearly the entire product. 

 The survival of 2 in 10,000 would probably more than maintain the species at an 

 equilibrium, and as the animal is markedly on the decrease the actual survival must 

 be less than this. 



It should be borne in mind that the number of eggs produced by lobsters exceeding 

 10J inches in length increases very rapidly in proportion to the increase in leugth, 

 according to the law already stated. A lobster 12£ inches long produces upwards of 

 20,000 eggs and a lobster 1G inches in length four times this number. 



The length of 10£ inches is taken as about the average length of reproductive 

 females at the beginning of their sexual maturity. The average length of mature 

 females is undoubtedly much greater than this. Furthermore, every female which 

 has reached sexual maturity reproduces once in two years. A large number, however, 

 are destroyed before they have succeeded in rearing a single brood. 



Taking these facts into consideration, and also the fact that the species as a whole 

 does not appear to be maintained at present at an equilibrium, but rather to be 

 actually on the decline, a little reflection will convince anyone that the destruction 

 of the young of this species in nature must be much greater than that entailed by the 

 survival of 2 in 10,000. Whatever survival there is under nature is a result of all the 

 conditions of the environment, whether adverse or favorable, so that as long as the 

 existing conditions remain the same, such as the persistency with which the fishery is 

 conducted, the temperature changes, and those conditions which affect the supply of 

 food, we may be sure that it is only necessary for each female in the course of her term 

 of life, be it long or short, to bring two young ones to maturity in order to maintain 

 the species at a uniform level. 



We can readily see how even a slightly greater survival than this would be rapidly 

 felt. Thus, let us suppose that there are at the present moment 50,000,000 lobsters 

 in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean off the eastern coast of North America, and that 

 the sexes are evenly divided. If each pair were to produce a pair to take their places, 

 as the result of their sexual activity, or what is the same thing, if each female should 

 produce two sexual individuals, there would be neither increase nor falling off in 

 numbers. If every female were to produce three instead of two to take their places, 

 the total number of individuals would be increased to 75,000,000, and if four were the 



