46 ABOUT LOBSTERS 



Fig. 7. Lobster creel — side view 



British have discovered that a lobster will more readily enter 

 a creel (their name for a pot) if his footing is made easier. 

 It sounds reasonable. Anyone who has watched a dog chase 

 a squirrel into a brush pile and climb up the brush pile in 

 pursuit will be struck by the dog's difficulty in finding a 

 footing— the holes between the branches hamper his locating 

 places to plant his feet. How much harder it must be for a 

 lobster with its dim sight to fumble around in the dark 

 searching for a strand of the header to support him. It is a 

 discovery which our lobstermen should investigate. 



Dr. H. Thomas of the Scottish Marine Laboratory in his 

 pamphlet, " The Efficiency of Fishing Methods Employed in 

 the Capture of Lobsters," lists the comparative catches of 

 their standard pot as compared with the same pot equipped 

 with a fine meshed catwalk on top of the head. In nineteen 

 test fishings, the standard pot caught an average of 2.7 lob- 

 sters, while the catwalk pot caught an average of 3.9 lob- 

 sters. This is a 44 per cent greater catch, and the average 

 size of the lobsters in the latter type pot was slightly greater. 

 The actual figures are shown below. 



The catwalk material is cord knitted with openings 

 about 5/16" square, and is apparently laced down to the 

 header net. 



