8 REPORT OP COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



of the microscopic plant (or animal) Peridinium. Further investi- 

 gations of the life-history of this' form, and the causes of its sudden 

 appearance and disappearance, are being- conducted. 



The increasing- importance of the quahaug fishery, the appeal 

 for regulation regarding- the catching of little-necks, the disputes' 

 between oystermen and quahaugers, and the lack of definite 

 knowledge of its breeding habits, rate of growth, etc., has led the 

 commission to begin a systematic investigation of this shell- 

 fish. 



In attacking the problems of lobster fishery, the commission 

 have directed their efforts to a thorough investigation of the gen- 

 eral habits and movements of the adult lobster, the hatching of 

 eggs, the rearing of the newly-hatched fry through the critical 

 period of their free-swimming life to a stage where they are com- 

 paratively well able to take care of themselves ; to ascertain- 

 ing the conditions necessary to the later growth of the young 

 lobsters ; to ascertaining whether the physical conditions of Nar- 

 ragansett Bay would permit the rearing of lobsters to the adult 

 stage ; and to the enforcement of laws regulating the capture of 

 short lobsters and lobsters bearing eggs. The success of the 

 attempts at lobster culture have been most satisfactory, and 

 especially so during the last two years. The apparatus invented 

 by the commission, and put into use at Wickford in 1901, which 

 proved far more successful than any hitherto used, was supplanted 

 last summer by an improved apparatus constructed on the same 

 general principle, but much more economical and efficient. The 

 experiments of the last three years in rearing lobsters to ascertain 

 how long it requires them to reach the marketable size, and to 

 ascertain if it is possible to rear them through the cold of 

 the winter and the changes in the density of the water in the 

 spring of the year, have given positive and encouraging informa- 

 tion in this regard, and the commission is in possession of live 

 lobsters which were hatched in 1900. The deputies appointed to 

 enforce the provision of the short lobster law, report favorable 

 progress, and there is no doubt that, through the efforts of the 



