40 



From these and other considerations of the relationship of 

 value to the statistics which they have procured, the Board 

 arrives at the following calculation which is made the basis for a 

 plea for the enforcement of a 9 in. limit, against which we have 

 nothing to urge since we have already in Northumberland 

 adopted this limit. But the further statement that the berried 

 lobster is not so well worth protecting cannot be allowed to pass 

 without contradiction. 



Protective Measure. Value Sacrificed. Number Protected. Rat To°VaIue! ber 



9 in. limit 12'5 per cent. ... 23'9 per cent. ... 1*91 



Protection of 



Berried Females 12"8 ,, ... 10*48 ,, ... 0'82 



It is said " From this table it would appear that the 9 in. limit 

 protects more than double the number of lobsters with the same 

 loss of value." It will be noticed at once that the whole point 

 and purpose of protecting the berried lobster has either been 

 forgotten or ignored. No one to my knowledge has ever 

 proposed to protect the berried lobster as a lobster, the desire 

 has been to protect her because of the crop of embryo lobsters 

 which she is carrying. If this essential point be taken into 

 consideration the number protected in relation to the value 

 sacrificed assumes an altogether different aspect. The number 

 protected is the berried lobster, and the number of the larvae 

 which will survive to maturity. 



Perhaps it will be better to put this matter of the protection 

 of the berried lobster into figures. According to the results 

 obtained by the Board from Sussex, the berried lobster con- 

 stitute 10'48 of the total catch. In the North Eastern district 

 it is 12'4 of the total catch. In the case of Northumberland if 

 we take the Beadnell figures, the percentage of berried lobsters 

 is 12*1, but as the small lobsters are already protected U p to 

 9 in., the percentage less the small is 13, and if the berried 

 lobster be deducted since they are also protected practically 

 altogether by the close time in force on the Northumberland 

 coast, the percentage may be put at 15 of the total marketable 

 catch at the present time. 



Now in 1911 there were landed in Northumberland 50,73-1 

 lobsters, and the number of berried lobsters caught would 

 therefore be 8,G10. If only one of the larvre survive in each 

 case the total number protected will not be, say 8,500, but 

 17,000; if two survive, the number would be 25,500. 



