16 REPORT OF CO:\IMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



fishery, which is one of the hirgest in the world, has worked for years 

 on this program, and, since the beginning of its activit}', has set free 

 in the bays of the island hundreds of millions of new-born lobster 

 larvse after they have come out of the eggs hatched in floating boxes. 

 The eggs themselves were stripped off from the pregnant females, 

 and the fish inspectors keep close watch, that in the great canning 

 factories no pregnant female is used before its eggs have been stripped 

 off. 



But it must not be overlooked that no matter how carefully the 

 work is done, the larvae being set free as near as possible to the bottom, 

 nevertheless bunching the young larvae in a limited area is unavoid- 

 able, which under natural conditions never happens. This immedi- 

 ately attracts enemies and causes a speedy end of the young lobsters. 

 In nature care is taken that not even the offspring of one female come 

 into the water all at once, since the larvae usually hatch out a few at 

 a time and mostly in the night. 



The circumstance that in nature the many millions of new-born 

 larvae scatter themselves over a vast surface, and that therefore the 

 magnitude of the dangers threatening life is greatly reduced, gives 

 natural conditions an extraordinary advantage over the conditions 

 supplied by artificial breeding. The value and significance of this 

 can not be overestimated. 



Yet we could well be satisfied with the achievements of artificial 

 lobster culture if it were indeed allowable — as many believe — to 

 measure the value of artificial breeding by the number of new-born 

 larvae put into the water. But this assumption must be firmly 

 opposed. 



Certainly it is of value if numerous germs, which the intensive fish 

 trade Avoidd heedlessly destroy, remain tlirough artificial means more 

 or less completely kept in the sea, for thereby in the most favorable 

 case the injurious influence of fishing is approximately counteracted. 



But artificial breeding ought not to be content to do at its best only 

 what nature does unaided. It obtains its real justification only when 

 it is in a position to surpass nature in her achievements. Only thus 



