Chapter Reariry?;, p» 48 



The ;->ui'p?se of the renrin;-; is to cr.re for the young diiririg the 

 entire Inrval-cTevelopnent, nnd to uo this bebter thnii oven natvire 

 herself. The reasoning is thnt the lobster's three youngest stages 

 must he exposed to particularly great dangers in nature as tjiey are 

 pelagic to a large extent; they might easily be destroyed by the 

 numerous swarros of fish vj-hich sv;im alone; the coast. However, 5 rrhen 

 the lobster has reached the 4th stage of development, it -;ives up 

 its free life after a fev/ days* It becomes a real bottom animal 

 v.dth an outstanding ability to hide* 



The significance of caring for Die young lobsters during this 

 critical period has been pointed out by authorities for ages; for 

 instance Professor Ossian Sars has, as mentioned before, spoken 

 for t?iis r.'-orl: aire: dy in his thesis T he postenb ry onic development 

 of the lobster e 



Much work has been done in different countries in order to 

 find good methods for such a rearing. In 1883 my father succeeded 

 in rearing some brood, but the method vras not so successful that 

 it could be used on a larger scale. Sticcess ivas, however, obtained 

 at Fl;z(devigen in 1923. It is now possible to rear the young lobsters 

 to the bottom stage 3n such a large scale tPiat there are possibilit- 

 ies of conducting the wori: economicallyo The technique is shortly 

 as follovfs: (See Alf Dannevig: The Rearing of Lobster Larvae at 

 Fl/devigen. ) 



In the early suminer a fe\i hundred egg-bearing lobsters are 

 bought from the lobster storehouses. The lobsters are brought to 

 the rearing station and ^3 laced in the hatching bo::es. They have 

 one room eacho They get food according to their appetite, and 

 fresh sea water is constantly streaming through the boxes. "Oien 

 the sea Yjrter reaches summer temperature, the lobsters start 

 hatching their eggs, ^he current of r.Titer immediately carries the 

 larvae away from the mother and doT.m into some strainer boxes. 

 They are taken up every morning and transferred to the rearing 

 apparatus. These -consist of square wooden boxes "le 28 X''l,45 meters 

 and 0.96 meters deep. -These boxes are built coherently in tv/o 

 series, 10 boxes in each row. ITe also have some older apparatus. 

 In these boxes the lar^-ae spend, the next 3 to 4 weeks, ^i'hey are 

 fed every second hour, day and night, v/ith finely ground, abso- 

 lutely fresh ox liver; (the liver is kept in the refrigerator until 

 it is given to the larvae). If the larvae are not fed regularly, 

 they eat each other, ilnother thing -.Thich also prevents cannibalism 

 is a relatively strong current. If there is not sufficient current 

 in the aquarivun, the larvae vdll gather together on the bottom and 

 destroy each other v s best they can. The circulation is brought 

 about by the water Virhich streams in. This is led in at the side 

 of the aquarium near the bottom and causes the water to circulate 



95 



