AND ITS EFFECT ON THE CRAB AND LOBSTER FISHERIES. 273 



The one advantage which results from a continuance of the fishing 

 is that the fishermen are thereby enabled to catch and destroy large 

 numbers of octopus which are taken in their pots, and this in itself is 

 of much importance. If a single fisherman, in the ordinary course of 

 his work, as shown in Table I., can catch sixty-four octopus in a 

 week, an appreciable reduction can be made in their numbers by the 

 labours of ten or a dozen fishermen similarly employed. 



On the Continent, however, and especially in the Mediterranean, 

 where these octopods are regularly fished and sold for food, it is found 

 that they can be caught in unbaited earthenware pots or vases, pro- 

 vided these are of a shape and size suitable for the octopus to enter 

 and take shelter in. The pots appear usually to be pitcher-shaped, 

 with a globular body about 12 inches and a neck about 3 or 4 inches 

 in diameter. These are attached by cords to a line at fixed intervals, 

 and the whole is then lowered to the bottom and buoyed for subsequent 

 recognition. The line is hauled up every few days, and a certain number 

 of octopus are found to have taken up their residence in the empty pots. 

 They can thus be removed and killed without involving any sacrifice of 

 valuable shell fish in the process. 



In places where the octopus abound, e.g. at Marseilles, three or four 

 men are permanently employed at a small subsidy in the sole work of. 

 catching them by the above and similar devices. 



The question therefore arises whether similar means could not be 

 used with advantage during the present crisis on the Devonshire and 

 Cornish coasts ; and, if so, whether the Sea Fisheries Committees of the 

 two counties might not obtain authority to temporarily subsidise 

 those lond fide crab fishermen who would give up their ordinary 

 mode of fishing to devote themselves for a time to the work of exter- 

 minating the octopus by such means. 



I hope that by the time these remarks are published I may be in a 

 position to state the results of experiments on these lines which are 

 now in progress in Plymouth Sound. 



