BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 23 



NECESSITY OF ATTEMPTING THE ARTIFICIAL TROPAGATION OF LOB- 

 STERS. 



In a report to the U. S. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, on the 

 lobster fishery of the United States, now in course of imblication, the 

 writer has given an account of what is known regarding the habits and 

 abundance of both the American and European species, which difier 

 but slightly from each other structurally. The investigations on which 

 that report is based confirmed the fact, i^reviously well known to those 

 acquainted with the industry, that the abundance of lobsters, as well as 

 their average size, has been rapidly decreasing from year to year on 

 many portions of the coast, ever since the fishery has been vigorously 

 pushed. A study of the habits of lobsters indicates that such a decrease 

 is far more possible with that species than with the true fishes, which 

 are, as a rule, more secure from the attacks of man. 



That a decrease has taken i^lace, and that in some regions it has 

 amounted to a serious loss, is attested by the statements of numerous 

 fishermen and dealers, which are quoted at some length in the report 

 above mentioned. 



All the States interested in the lobster fishery, excepting New Jersey, 

 whose fishery is small, have enacted protective lawsj but, either because 

 these laws are inadequate or are not properly enforced, they have failed 

 to stop the decrease, though they may have checked it more or less. 

 As a result, the fishery is falling off in the United States, and we are 

 even now dependent, to a greater or less extent, on the British Prov- 

 inces for the supplies of our larger markets. The same trouble exists 

 in Europe, where the lobster fishery is, of course, of much older date 

 than in this country, and where it has been controlled by legislation for 

 many years. Many elaborate reports have been published upon the 

 European fishery by experts appointed to investigate its condition and 

 needs, but they are apparently at as much loss there as we are here 

 regarding the methods and benefits of protection. In l^orway, which 

 country possesses the most important European fishery, they have, as 

 a last resort, sought relief through the aid of artificial lobster culture, 

 and experiments to that end have been carried on for several years. In 

 the United States, where the methods of fish culture are best under- 

 stood and have been most productive of beneficial results, it is natural 

 to suppose that the same course would have been often suggested, and 

 such has really been the case. None of the trials up to this year have, 

 however, been made according to the most approved methods of fish 

 propagation, and insufficient means for carrying on any such practical 

 experiments with respect to salt-water species of fish have alone pre- 

 vented the Fish Commission from engaging in this work before. 



It would be impossible, within the limits of this paper, to cite even a 

 portion of the evidence bearing upon the decrease of lobsters which has 



