VIII 



Pacific Coast Transplanting 



Fish and Wildlife Service states : 



A number of attempts have been made to establish 

 the American lobster to the Pacific coast. In the years 

 1874, 1879, 1888, and 1899, some 104,000 larvae and 

 355 adult lobsters were planted in California waters, 

 and 233 adults were released in Puget Sound and off the 

 mouth of the Columbia River in Washington. Also, two 

 lobsters were released in Great Salt Lake, Utah. All of 

 these transfers were unsuccessful. Between 1906 and 

 1917, efforts to transplant lobsters were intensified. A 

 total of 24,572 lobsters were planted in Puget Sound, 

 Washington, and 1,532 in Yaquina Bay, Oregon. It is 

 evident that these lobsters also failed to survive and re- 

 produce. In 1954, however, introductions of American 

 lobsters to waters near Prince Rupert, British Colum- 

 bia, met with some success. Several lobsters have been 

 caught two years after being released. One individual 

 was taken twenty miles from where it was planted. 

 Thus, it has now been shown that the lobsters can be 

 transplanted to Pacific water. 1 



One problem in estimating results has been the scarcity 

 of persons who know what the Eastern lobster looks like. 

 It has been easy to receive reports of catching lobsters, only 

 to find that the catch was actually crawfish. 



The ultimate success of this transplantation is yet to be 

 determined. 



Artificial Rearing of Lobsters 2 



Lobster hatcheries are not new; all the New England 

 States except Vermont and New Hampshire have tried their 



1 " The American Lobster " (Bulletin No. 74), Fish and Wildlife Service. 



2 Ernest W. Barnes, Bulletin, House No. 2051, Massachusetts Division of 

 Fisheries and Game, was used in preparation of this section. Much help 

 also came from John Hughes, Director of the Oak Bluffs Hatchery. 



