REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 9 



has appealed to the fisheries aiitliorities in nearly every country and 

 state in whose waters the lobster is found. Attempts to solve the 

 problem have been made in nearly all of these, but have been followed 

 by uniform failure owing to technical difficulties. The experiments 

 at Wickford in 1900 resulted in the fortunate discovery of a new 

 principle which has been since applied with improved devices and 

 apparatus each year until now a method for rearing lobsters is in 

 operation which hatches the eggs and rears the fry to the "lobster- 

 ling" stage with such economy and in such numbers that it may be 

 called practical.* 



These efforts of your Commission to contribute to the permanent and 

 general development of the fisheries methods as well as to look after 

 the local interests of the fisheries have evoked considerable interest 

 abroad, and inquiries regarding these methods have been received 

 from England, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and the Isle of Jerse}^; 

 from Spain, France, German}^, Norway, Austria, Ceylon, Japan, and 

 New Zealand. Included in this report is an article on artificial 

 lobster culture by Professor Ehrenbaum of the German Fisheries 

 Station of Helgoland, translated from the official publication of the 

 German Sea Fisheries Association (p. 14). Professor Ehrenbaum's 

 eminent position among fisheries experts, and the fact that he has 

 for man}' years given especial attention to the question of lobster 

 culture, having written, in 1903, a summary of the work to that 

 date, gives especial interest to his characterization of the Rhode 

 Island method of dealing with the lobster problem. 



Particularly gratifying is the confirmation of the opinion often 

 expressed by your Commission, and by others who have stutlied the 

 habits of the lobster carefully, regarding the relative value of lob- 

 sters when first hatched and when reared to the first bottom stage. 

 " It may safely be asserted that the setting free of over 100,000 young 

 lobsters of the first bottom stage — the result of the labors of 1905 — 

 lifts the whole work above the plane of experiment; for these thou- 

 sands have more value for the improvement of the local lobster 



* See Ehrenbaum's comment, p. 23. 



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