234 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



COMMERCIAL VALUE. 



The lobster is the most important crustacean of tlie United States. 

 It is the object of a special fishery, carried on with pots or traps, in all 

 the coastal States from Delaware northward, and also in Nova Scotia, 

 New Brnnswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Newfoundland. 

 In Maine, where tlie fishery is more important than in any other State, 

 the lobster is the i)rincipal fishery product. In 1802 over 3,500 persons 

 were engaged in this fishery in the United States; the capital invested 

 was about $650,000, and the catch amounted to 23,725,000 pounds, 

 valued at $1,062,000. In 1880 the yield was but little smaller (20,240,000 

 pounds), but the market value was much less, being only $488,000. 



Between 1889 and 1892 the New England lobster catch decreased 

 over 7,000,000 pounds, or 23 per cent, while the value increased over 

 $200,000, or 25 per cent. For a number of years this fishery presented 

 the anomaly of a diminishing supply and an augmented catch, owing 

 to the more active prosecution of the business; but the decline in the 

 yield has for sonie time been unchecked, notwithstanding the employ- 

 ment of more apparatus and the i)rolongation of the fishing season. 

 With a singular disregard for their own welfare, many fishermen have 

 continually violated the State laws for the protection of small, imma- 

 ture lobsters and females bearing eggs. Only the rigid enforcement of 

 restrictive measures by the States and the extensive artificial propaga- 

 tion of the lobster can ward oft' the destruction which threatens this 

 valuable fishery. 



INCEPTION AND PROGRESS OF LOBSTER-CULTURE. 



If egg-bearing lobsters were not liable to destruction by man, arti- 

 ficial propagation would hardly be necessary. Notwithstanding the 

 enactment of stringent laws prohibiting the sale of " berried " lobsters, 

 the frequent sacrifice of such lobsters, with their eggs, and of many 

 immature lobsters, has seriously reduced the lobster output and rendered 

 active and stringent measures imperative. By the present methods 

 millions of lobster eggs are annually taken and hatched that would be 

 lost, and the females iiroducing them, amounting to several thousands, 

 are liberated. 



Prior to 1885 experiments had been conducted at various points look- 

 ing to the artificial propagation of the lobster. The only practical 

 attempts of this nature previous to those made by the Fish Commission 

 were by means of " parking," that is, holding in large naturally inclosed 

 basins lobsters that had been injured, soft-shelled ones, and those below 

 marketable size. Occasionally female lobsters with spawn were placed 

 in the same inclosures. One of these parks was established in Massa- 

 chusetts in 1872, but was afterward abandoned ; another was established 

 on the coast of Maine about 1880. It was soon demonstrated, however, 

 that the results from inclosures of this character, so far as the rearing 

 of the lobsters from the young were concerned, would not be sufiicient 

 to materially affect the general supply. 



