ABOUT LOBSTERS 65 



shown that an area yielding a good catch one week may 

 be sparsely populated the next, but soon thereafter may 

 again be productive. In such a case, the poor fishing 

 might be due to the large catches of the previous trip, 

 but if so, certain areas, at least, soon become repopu- 

 lated by lobsters which shift ground, presumably from 

 close by. [This is contrary to records of pot fishing in 

 shallower waters.] 



While the offshore population comprises lobsters of 

 all sizes, individuals of two pounds or more make up a 

 much larger percentage of the population than in in- 

 shore waters where the fishery has been intensive for 

 many years. . . . Individuals of fifteen to twenty-five 

 pounds are not rare in offshore waters. . . . 7 



The preserving of the catch on the 60-foot dragger 

 Sonia was accomplished by " the use of three storage con- 

 tainers on deck (two of them 3 feet wide, 2y 2 feet deep, 12 

 feet long, each holding 1600 pounds of lobsters, and one 3 

 feet by 2 feet by 7 feet, holding 800 pounds ) supplied with 

 running water from two pumps. When these were filled, 

 lobsters were packed in the hold on burlap and ice." 8 



Lobstermen are often at war with trawlers, particularly 

 with such trawlers as plow through an area marked by lob- 

 ster buoys and dredge up the pots and even scrape off the 

 bottom feed. It is probable, however, that trawling as de- 

 scribed by Benson, in water too deep for pot fishing, does 

 not hamper the lobsterman. 



British Practices 



Eveiyone can learn something from how the other fel- 

 low practices his trade. The Scottish Marine Laboratory 

 has researched and reported on customs in the British lob- 

 ster industry in a detail that we have not reached in this 

 country : 



William C. Schroeder, " The Lobster, Homarus americanus, and the red 

 crab, Geryon quinquedens, in the offshore waters of the western North 

 Atlantic." 

 Ibid. Appendix. 



