BUREAU OF FISHERIES 319 
The lobster is of paramount importance to the shore fisheries of 
the North Atlantic States, since it furnishes a large part of the in- 
come of great numbers of small-boat fishermen from Maine to New 
Jersey. The decline of the lobster catch to approximately one-third 
of its former level, in spite of vast increases in the amount of gear 
fished, led to a cooperative investigation by the Bureau of Fisheries 
and the State of Maine. The primary purposes of this study are to 
develop improved methods of lobster rearing and to determine the 
proper legal-size limit. Measurement of lobsters caught commer- 
cially along the Maine coast indicates that only about eight percent of 
the lobster population has an opportunity to spawn, suggesting that 
present size limits result in both an economic and biological waste. 
Further research on this problem is in progress. 
The past year witnessed increased interest in the restoration of 
Atlantic salmon. In cooperation with representatives of Maine and 
other North Atlantic States, a cooperative program designed to 
restore and maintain salmon runs in favorable New England streams 
has been prepared. It is hoped that unified support will be accorded 
this program so that it may be put into effect in the near future. 
Middle and South Atlantic fishery investigations —Additional 
study of the Atlantic coast shad fishery provided confirmation of the 
opinion expressed a year ago—that the principal cause of depletion 
is overfishing rather than pollution or ebstruction of runs, and that 
recovery can best be brought about by providing a spawning escape- 
ment in such depleted areas as the Chesapeake Bay and the waters 
of North Carolina which will be substantially equivalent to that 
which has proved adequate in the Hudson River. Investigations in 
1939 also demonstrated the important fact that the moderate fishing 
rate in the Hudson eventually takes as many shad from each year- 
class as the more intensive fishery in the Chesapeake, but by spread- 
ing the catch over several years allows six times as much spawning 
from each year-class. Recommendations have been made to the conser- 
vation departments of Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina to 
the effect that the fishery should be reduced to 60 percent of its 
present magnitude by restricting the amount of gear licensed. 
As a means of securing greater yields and larger profits from each 
brood of striped bass, regardless of its relative abundance, the Bureau 
of Fisheries recommended the establishment of a minimum-size limit 
of 16 inches, measured from the snout to the fork of the tail. This 
recommendation was adopted by New York during 1939. A slightly 
higher size limit is in effect in New Jersey. Recommendations for 
substantial increases in the size limit have been submitted to the 
fishermen by the Virginia Commission of Fisheries and similar action 
