26 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



by the State laws, and that seems to be the case nearly everywhere. 

 In Portland, Mo., the average length of the lobsters marketed in 1880 

 was about lOJ inches, and in Boston 11 to 11^ inches, while in New 

 York City the range in size was from 10^ to 15 inches. 



The facts above stated apply only to the larger distributing centers, 

 where custom had prescribed the minimum limit in size of the lobsters 

 marketed, before protective laws were enacted. At that time there was 

 an abundance of large lobsters, and the smaller individuals were re- 

 garded as of little account for the fresh trade. They have, however, 

 been used for a long time by the canneries on the coast of Maine, by 

 the fishermen as bait, and to supply local demands. The quantity of 

 lobsters consumed, measuring less than 10 inches in length, is, there- 

 fore, very great, and on some portions of the Maine coast the canneries 

 make use of only those that are too small for the fresh-market trade. 

 In fact, the greater proportion of the lobsters now canned are less than 

 10 inches long. From these statements it will be seen that there is a 

 steady demand for lobsters of all sizes, and that but a limited pro- 

 tection is afforded either by laws or custom. 



RANGE AND MIGRATIONS OF LOBSTERS. 



The American lobster has been taken as far south as oft' Cape Hat- 

 teras, X. C, where a single medium-sized individual (13 inches long) 

 was dredged from a depth of 49 fathoms, by the Fish Commission 

 steamer Albatross, in 1884. Two or three examples have also been re- 

 corded from the northeastern part of the sea-coast of Virginia, but the 

 Delaware Breakwater may be regarded as practically the southern limit 

 of its range, although it is not at all common at that place, and is rarely 

 fished for. Lobsters are somewhat more abundant off Atlantic City 

 and Long Branch, New Jersey, where they afford a limited fishery, and 

 in New York Bay and the adjacent regions they were at one time quite 

 plentiful, but overfishing and the pollution of the waters have almost en- 

 tirely exterminated them there. Passing eastward through Long Island 

 Sound, they gradually increase in abundance as we approach the Block 

 Island region, and from there to the extreme northern limit of the coast 

 of Massachusetts, wherever the bottom was suited to them, they were 

 formerly exceedingly abundant. The first important fishery originated 

 along this section of the coast, Cape Cod at one time having furnished 

 New York City with nearly all of its supplies. The sandy shores of 

 New Hampshire are not so prolific in lobsters as are those of either of 

 the adjoining States. Maine is now the i^rincipal source of supply for 

 all the larger markets of this country, the yearly fishery of that State 

 greatly exceeding in quantity and value those of all the other States 

 combined. 



Most of the British maritime provinces abound in lobsters which are 

 especially plentiful on both the ocean and gulf coasts of New Bruns- 

 wick and Nova Scotia, these two countries now affording the most ex- 



