638 MARINE PRODUCTS OF COMMERCE 



termined by the choice of food, the attention given the equipment, and the tem- 

 perature of the sea water. The advantage of this method over the others pro- 

 posed previously lies in its ability to keep the larval lobsters off the bottom from 

 which they are unable to rise and on which they would kill each other. Moreover, 

 the upward moving spiral current of water prevents the young lobsters from con- 

 gregating anywhere, and thus reduces the losses resulting from their cannibalistic 

 proclivities. 



The Federal Government has established lobster hatcheries at Booth Bay Har- 

 bor, Me., and Gloucester, Mass. Maine and Connecticut both operate lobster 

 hatcheries, and Massachusetts has plans underway to establish one on Cape Cod, 

 the exact location of which has not been decided upon. 



Chemical Composition and Nutritive Value of Lobsters 



Fresh Lobsters. Comparatively few analyses have been made of whole lobsters 

 or lobster meat, and those which have been carried out have, for the most part, 

 only considered the proximate composition of the lobster. While carrying out some 

 researches to determine the changes taking place in the composition of lobsters 

 during prolonged fasting Morgulis (1916) analyzed whole normal lobsters. His 

 results are given in Table 137. Atwater (1919) has made an extensive study of 

 the composition of materials commonly used for food in the United States. His 

 analyses of fresh lobster and canned lobster are presented in Tables 138 and 139. 



These data indicate that lobster meat contains a negligible amount of carbo- 

 hydrates and only a small percentage of fat. The dry matter of lobster meat con- 

 tains approximately 80 per cent protein. Since in eating lobsters about 60 per cent 

 of the animal is discarded and approximately 80 per cent of the remainder is water, 

 the total nutrient content of fresh lobster is only about 7 per cent. At present 



Table 137. Average Composition of 5 Whole Lobsters. 

 Constituent 



Dry matter 



Water 



Organic matter 



Total inorganic matter 



Nonvolatile inorganic matter 



Total glycogen 



Ether extract 



Alcohol extractives 



Alcohol extracted nitrogen 



Per cent nitrogen in alcohol extract 



Water extractives 



Water extracted nitrogen 



Per cent of nitrogen in water extract 



Total nitrogen 



Protein ( nonextracted nitrogen X 6.25) 



Undetermined 



Source: Morgulis, S., "Changes in the Weight and Composition of Fasting Lobsters," 

 /. Biol. Chem., 24, 137-147 (1916). 



