18-i THE niOTECTION OF CRABS AND LOBSTERS. 



that out of a total of 3,470 lobsters (unsorted catches) counted by him 

 at Heligoland, between November, 1892, and July, 1893, 383 were 

 females carrying eggs, that is, 11 per cent, of the total number taken. 

 Of the lobsters taken by one boat at Plymouth* during May, June, and 

 the first half of July, 1890, about 6h per cent, were berried females. 

 These numbers represent, therefore, the nearest approximation we can 

 get at the present time as to the amount of loss which the men would 

 immediately suiter, if they were compelled to return all berried females 

 to the sea. In his report to the Northumberland Committee, Mr. Gregg 

 Wilson recommends that there should be a close time for berried hen 

 lobsters only, during the months of June and July, on the ground that 

 more berried females are got during those two mouths than at other 

 times of the year. I can only say that, according to my experience at 

 Plymouth, it is more difficult to obtain berried lobsters in July than 

 during any other month when the boats are fishing. 



With respect to the crab, however, the facts are in many important 

 respects different from what they are in the case of the lobster. 



In the first place, the berried crabs are already protected under the 

 Fisheries Act, 1877, it being illegal to buy, sell, or have in one's posses- 

 sion such crabs, and in the second place, these crabs never, or very 

 rarely, enter the pots. When in spawn they migrate to the deeper 

 water, and appear to bury themselves in the sand. At any rate, they 

 are taken in this condition from smooth ground by the trawlers. 



As to the spawning time of the crab, Mr. Gregg Wilson gives some 

 interesting information derived from his own observations on the coast 

 of Northumberland, and comes to the conclusion that the spawning 

 period includes November, December, and January. A large proportion 

 of the take of crabs during these months consists of females which are 

 just about to spawn, and Mr. Wilson suggests that these might be pro- 

 tected, and proposes a close time from the 1st of September to the end 

 of January, As an additional argument in favour of this close time 

 he adduces the fact that many crabs during these months are soft, that 

 is, have cast their shell and are quite unfit for food. In November, 

 two out of every three crabs were found to be " casters," and although 

 the men profess to throw these soft crabs back, many of them are so 

 much injured by the rough treatment they receive that there is little 

 chance of their surviving. 



" I know of one village," says Mr. Wilson, " where the sorting of the 

 crabs is done, not at the fishing grounds, but on dry land, and where, 

 too, it is done so badly, that as little as a shilling a barrel was got for 

 crabs sent to market in November ; and I know another village where 

 the men confess that if the law against the sale of caster-crabs could 



• This Journal. Vol. ii. N.S. p. 15. 



