In order to demonstrate directly how nuch the fishermen recatch 

 of the lobster they have thi'orm out, tvro experiracnts v.'ere made at 

 Hidra in Vest-Agder in 1926 and 1927. Some ta£.',;ed lobsters between 

 21-22 and between 22-23 cno were liberated. The recatch as to 

 nvaaber and v,reight is seen from Table 5. As vre must expect, the 

 resvilts were somOT/hat different© In the first case we recaught 

 less - in the second case much more than we lot outo Because the 

 tags disappoar afber a while, the fi(^ures ■^,iven are minimum figures e 



These direct experiments confirm the calculations; a fevj- years 

 after the increase in the minimijm measureLient . vj-e shall have ob- 

 tained an increrse -if the lobster population - including the number 

 of spawning lobsters. And this without permanent expense for the 

 fishermeno 



On the other ?iand it is obvious that we cannot go on increas- 

 ing the irdnimma measureiaent with one centimeter after anotlier* 

 Thereby vro should certainly obtain a larger population, but too 

 mB.ny of these irould then belong to less valuable sizes; the natural 

 death rate v;ould become higher and the individual increase less. 

 All this tells against a high minixcum measurement t It is necessary 

 to find the happy medium* All the material we have i:oints at 21 

 cmo as too low a mininuin; v/e should be able t-^ increase it to 22 

 cmo without any risk '.vhat-so-ever c 



Chapter The i" ax.iua 1 Fr ot e ct i o n , p» 46 



The purpose of the annual protection (closed season) v>rhich vre 

 have had since 1879, is to prevent fishing of lobsters which hrive 

 just moulted, as these are of poor quality and loss capable of 

 living in confinement. It also preverrfcs an extended fishing of 

 the spavming lobstero 



The obligatory protection period in the early summer will 

 increase the number of spavming female lobsters, a prolongation in 

 the fall will improve the quality in the districts which start the 

 fishery in September and partly in Oct:?boro Besides, a considerable 

 prolongation of the protection period will affect neither the pr.^i" it 

 of the fishery nor the populationo The lobster fishery proper takes 

 about a month in each district, V-Oiether +he annual protection period 

 is one or six months is of no consequence for the result of the 

 catcho 



Besides protecting the lobster during the time it is of poor 

 quality, the annual protection is, in my opinion, of the greatest 

 importance as a regulating factor. It regulates the fishery so 

 that this will last ^nly for a short time - but vj-ill be relatively 

 profitableo 



93 



