ABOUT LOBSTERS 47 



The three types of creels tested are described herewith : 



1. The standard pot— a half-round pot with heads at 

 either end and no parlor. This is like the one in Figure 7, 

 but without the fine mesh catwalk. 



2. The standard pot fitted with a non-escape device on 

 each head. The device consists of a hinged, freely movable 

 fl shaped, galvanized iron wire which at rest lies across the 

 opening of the head. It offers little resistance to entry of 

 the pot, but prevents escape through the head. Such a one- 

 way-passage trap has been used by some American lobster- 

 men but has not come into general use. Possibly the tap- 

 ping noise made when the hanging tongue butts against the 

 ring of the header may scare lobsters away. 



3. The standard pot fitted with a fine mesh catwalk 

 lying on the head, as shown in Figure 7. " Twelve of each 

 of these types were used in each fishing in depths down to 

 15 fathoms. They were fished in trawls of eight pots, care 

 being taken to drop them at the same depth as nearly as 

 possible. The period of fishing being twenty-four hours. 

 The following table shows the catches of lobsters by the 

 three types of pots in each of nineteen fishing." 



Catch of lobsters by creel types per fishing 



12345678 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Average 



Standard 120632430 2242 3 5 2443 2.7 

 Fine-mesh 



catwalk 41154764222332 10 167 5 3.9 

 Non- 

 escape 3143323512420444636 3.2 



The average catch per fishing by the pot with the 

 fine-mesh catwalk is well above the others. Over 20 per 

 cent better than the non-escape pot, and nearly 40 per 

 cent better than the Standard pot. 



A weighted estimate of the overall average length 

 of lobsters is given in respect of each type of pot. The 

 fine-mesh catwalk pot caught slightly larger lobsters. 



