68 COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



CHANGES TO ENABLE BETTER ENFORCEMENT OF THE 



LOBSTER LAW. 



INTERFERENCE WITH SEARCH. 



This law was not designed to interfere with the rights of honest 

 fishermen, but was intended to prevent the dishonest lobstermen 

 from escaping the consequences of their illegal actions. The laws 

 were drawn with the idea of protecting the lobster industry, and your 

 Commission believes that when the lobstermen are granted a license 

 a sort of guarantee is given them that the industry will be protected 

 from the ravages of dishonest and law-breaking fishermen. Your 

 Commission therefore believes that every effort should be made to 

 protect the licensed fishermen by rendering the law more difficult to 

 evade. Those who make a practice of handling illegal lobsters 

 resort to some device which enables them to get rid of the same, 

 when the deputies appear. Many times net bags which apparently — 

 often admittedly — contain short lobsters or egg lobsters are emptied 

 over the sides of the boat within plain sight of the deputies. With 

 the evidence gone the law breakers cannot be convicted. It is there- 

 fore proposed to frame a law which will 'penalize the interference 

 with the search, after intention thereof has been announced, by removing, 

 disposing of, or destroying any article or thing. 



MARKING PACKAGES IN TRANSIT. 



In order to facilitate the inspection of packages in the search for 

 illegal lobsters it is proposed to cause all packages in transit contain- 

 ing lobsters to be plainly marked with the word "Lobsters" and the 

 name of the shipper and consignee. It may be pointed out that this 

 is also an excellent thing for the lobstermen, because the transporta- 

 tion companies will take better care of barrels and packages when they 

 know from the conspicuous label that they contain lobsters. 



REGULATION OF THE SALE OF LOBSTER MEAT. 



Rhode Island has been comparatively free from the evasion of the 



