a 
ae 
Fy 
UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES OF MARINE FISHERIES. 27 
on the island of Ré are, however, much more valuable and pro- 
ductive now than at the time Dr Lawson wrote of them. It is 
impossible, in so short a time, to discuss the most approved 
methods of oyster farming, but perhaps enough has been said to 
show that it would be worth while considering the matter, and 
before leaving the subject I may mention that a conclusive 
answer to those who have thought in the past that our waters 
were too cold for any successful work in this direction, is the 
fact that the Norwegians are successfully cultivating oysters on 
their coast, and sending large quantities of “seed”’ to this 
country. 
LOBSTERS. 
In conclusion, I should like to say something about the 
lobster fisheries on our coasts. The value of this crustacean to 
a large population of fishermen all round Great Britain and 
Treland is considerable, and, like many other branches of the 
fishing industry, it has been falling off of late years owing to 
mismanagement. From Heston to the Burrow Head, wherever 
the shore is rocky, lobsters are to be found, and here, too, they 
seem to be very much scarcer than they used to be. This is 
hardly to be wondered at when we consider the methods which 
have been adopted, and are adopted at the present time, I 
believe, on the Scottish shore. There appears to be no close 
season whatever, and a large number of the lobsters caught are 
actually carrying their eggs, almost ready for hatching. This 
waste is bound to tell in time on the quantity of lobsters, and, 
indeed, it would seem that the time when they will be compara- 
tively rare is not far off. The hatching of lobster eggs is not a 
difficult matter, and the spawn taken from underneath the 
female lobster, where it will be found for some weeks prior to 
hatching off, can be easily dealt with if it is carefully removed 
from the parent and placed in a suitable tank. On some parts 
of the coast lobster smacks used to have wells in them, to which 
the fresh sea water had access, and it frequently happened that 
a batch of eggs attached to a captured lobster would hatch off 
and the young would be found in large quantities in the water. 
From this occurrence the idea of floating receptacles for 
the spawn was originated—in America, I believe—and these 
were anchored over the lobster ground, and all spawn 
removed from the captured lobsters and placed in them. 
