CHAPTER XIV 



Lobster, Crab, and Shrvmp 

 Lobster and the American Lobster Industry 



IN colonial days lobsters were exceedingly plenti- 

 ful along the coast from Delaware to Labrador. 

 It is said that after severe storms the beaches 

 were littered with dead lobsters which had been 

 killed and washed ashore. Such tales seem rather 

 fanciful but probably are true, for these lobster 

 grounds were the finest ever known. One hundred 

 million lobsters have been captured on the Canadian 

 coast in a single year. In the eighteenth century 

 many of the lobsters taken were of great size. In 

 fact, the little lobsters weighing a pound or less such 

 as we get to-day were considered too small to be of 

 value. Lobsters weighing twenty-five pounds were 

 occasionally taken, and those weighing six to eight 

 pounds were often sold in the markets. 



Even in the nineteenth century, lobsters of great 

 size were sometimes taken. One lobster which weighed 

 thirty-four pounds was caught at Atlantic High- 

 lands, New Jersey, in 1897. Its body was twenty-four 

 inches long, and with outstretched claws its entire 

 length was about four feet. Its crushing claw was 

 fifteen inches in length with a girth of over twenty 

 inches. 



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