APPENDIX. 65 



expense of enforcing the protective legislation, your Commissioners 

 have recommended to the consideration of your Honorable Body 

 certain changes in the present law which they believe will facilitate 

 its enforcement and give a fairer return to the citizens of the State, 

 to whom these valuable natural resources belong, and upon whom 

 rests the responsibility and expense of maintenance. These recom- 

 mendations are embodied in 'An act in substitution of Chapter 969 

 of the Public Laws, passed at the January session, A. D. 1902, entitled 

 ' An act in substitution of Chapter 857 of the Public Laws, passed at 

 the January session, A. D. 1901, entitled 'An act for the better pro- 

 tection of the lobster fisheries,' " introduced into the Senate. The 

 provision in the act substituting, for the present method of measuring 

 the lobster from tip of bone on head to the end of tail, the measure- 

 ment of the body shell alone, will be of great convenience to fisher- 

 men and deputies alike. It leaves the legal length of the lobster 

 unchanged, and has the distinct advantage that it will do away with 

 the common practice of stretching of lobsters just under the legal 

 length. This practice has not only given rise to irritating disputes, 

 but has been the means of destroying great numbers of young lobsters 

 which are killed by the stretching, whether they prove to be of legal 

 length or not. The new method has been in force for a year or more 

 in Maine, and has proved very satisfactory. The provision in the 

 proposed law requiring all persons engaged in the lobster fishery to be 

 licensed is also strongly recommended by your Commissioners. It 

 should also be stated that the Conference of the Fish Commissioners 

 of the New England States, held in Boston in December, 1908, at 

 the instance of Governor Guild, formally and unanimously resolved 

 to approve of the licensing of lobster fisherman as an admirable 

 procedure, and that the Fish Commissioners of Maine and Con- 

 necticut at least, have recommended the provision to their respective 

 legislatures. Some of the advantages of the license provision are: 

 "The greater ease and accuracy of keeping track of lobster fishermen; 

 the providing of an appropriate punishment for willful violation of 

 the law, by revoking the license; the partial compensation to the 



