BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 17 



Vol. \ I, No. 2. Washins^tou, I>. C. Feb. 8, 1 886. 



S.-IVOTE^ OIV liOBSTER CUlxTURE. 



By RICHARD RATIIBVIV. 



EXPERIMENTS BY THE U. S. FISH COMMISSION IN 1885. 



The partial completion, in August last, of the new laboratory build- 

 ing at the marine station of the Fish Commission, at Wood's Holl, 

 Mass., with its convenient system of salt-water piping, permitted the 

 necessary experiments being begun at that time with respect to the ar- 

 tificial hatching of lobsters — a branch of fish culture the great impor- 

 tance of which has long been felt in view of the raind decrease in 

 abundance of that valuable food product. Unfortunately the hatching 

 season had then closed, but it was deemed advisable to ascertain the 

 best methods of handling the eggs, in order that there might be as 

 little delay as possible in starting operations next spring. 



Unlike most fishes, the lobster carries its eggs until they hatch. The 

 eggs are fertilized while yet in the ovaries, and are soon afterward ex- 

 truded, but the length of the period of development is not known. As 

 they issue from the body of the female, they are coated with a viscid 

 substance that soon hardens into short, tough, and very flexible threads, 

 by means of which they are attached in bunches or clusters, of variable 

 sizes, to the swimmerets and under surface of the abdomen or tail, the 

 hinder feet, it is said, being used to aid in carrying them back and dis- 

 tributing them as they come from the apertures of the oviducts. The 

 eggs are comparatively large (about one-twelfth of an inch in diameter) 

 and hardy, and each lobster carries from about 12,000 to 21,000, accord- 

 ing to its size. 



The problem of lobster hatching on a practical scale is one that the 

 Fish Commission has long had in view, but all of its marine laboratories 

 up to the present time have been temporary structures, with insufficient 

 accommodations and without the means of obtaining continuous sup- 

 plies of water in suitable quantities. It was ho^Ded that the new build- 

 ing would be finished early enough in the spring to permit of the begin- 

 ning of hatching work in June; but the hinderances which are inevitable 

 to all such projects interfered to delay actual operations for another 

 year. The hatching of small quantities of lobster eggs, as well as the 

 eggs of other species of crustaceans, had been successfully accom- 

 plished, from time to time, by members of the Fish Commission party 

 interested in embryological studies, and the possibility of conducting 

 hatching operations on a small scale, and of carrying the young through 

 at least the first few stages of growtli, needed no further j)roof ; but the 

 Bull. U. S. F. C, 86 2 



