ABOUT LOBSTERS 9 



avoiding even the most elementary conservation prac- 

 tices. 



The commissioner of Sea and Shore Fisheries said 

 of this law in 1904, "The (lobster) canning business, 

 which received the blow given by the legislature of 

 1895 when it repealed the nine-inch law died in that 

 year, and with the death of the canning industry the 

 lobster business of the state commenced to revive." 



Overdue as had been the end of the Maine canned 

 lobster industry by 1895, this industry, nevertheless, 

 had served several useful purposes. It had brought 

 about the first exploitation, on a broad commercial 

 basis, of the Maine lobster resource. It served to di- 

 versify fishing activities and to broaden the economy 

 of coastal areas. It stimulated competition from the 

 fresh lobster industry and forced the latter to improve 

 handling, transportation and distribution methods and 

 facilities. In a negative way, the canning industry had 

 made obvious the need for conservation, law enforce- 

 ment, and the elimination of prodigal waste in the 

 fishery. 



Following the final elimination of canning as an 

 industrial factor, the fresh lobster industry took over 

 the commercialization of the fishery in its entirety. Al- 

 though it is uncertain when tidal pounds 'and other 

 holding devices were first introduced into Maine 

 waters, by 1904 twenty-six had been built with a total 

 storage capacity of one and one-half million lobsters. 

 Storage facilities currently employed for the holding 

 of lobsters consist of some forty tidal pounds and ap- 

 proximately one thousand tanks and cars. It is possible 

 to store nearly five million pounds of lobsters in these 

 various holding devices. 



To the fresh market area, within the limitations im- 

 posed on the live product by transportation and distri- 

 bution facilities, holding devices provide much the 

 same marketing service today as did the canneries to 



