LOBSTER SANCTUARIES AND HATCHING PONDS 5t 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 38a 



ANNUAL OR BIENNIAL HATCHING. 



A second suggestion regarding the cement pound was that it might be used by 

 the Biological Board for settling the question: "Do female lobsters, extrude and 

 hatch their eggs annually or bienially." 



This question would appear to be already settled unless the habit of the Atlnntic 

 lobster differs entirely from those introduced into New Zealand. Professor Prince, 

 who has always adhered to the view that lobsters spawn annually, sends me the report 

 of the Marine Department of New Zealand for the year 1911-12. In this volume, Mr. 

 F. Anderton, the Superintendent of the Marine Fish-hatchery at Portobello, N.Z., 

 reports annual spatvning by eleven out of fifteen lobsters in 1911, nineteen out of 

 twenty-one in 1910, and twenty-three out of twenty-three in 1909. 



If the lobsters now in Long Beach pond remain healthy during the next year, 

 they will furnish some facts bearing upon this question. 



FKEDING EXPERIMENTS. 



A third suggestion that has been made regarding the cement pound is that it be 

 used for feeding experiments. This is a proposal which every scientific worker will 

 heartily endorse; but it is work that would be by no means easy. The pound as it 

 stands at present cannot be used for such a purpose, because the bottom is covered 

 with animal and vegetable ^latter and would thus supply some food for the lobsters. 

 Unless, therefore, the bottom were cemented, it would be impossible to decide how 

 much nourishment the lobsters derived from the bottom of the pound and how much 

 fj'om the special food supplied to them by the experimenter. 



In the next place, the experimenter would need to be in a position to control all 

 other conditions of feeding — frequency, quality, and quantity of food. Moreover, the 

 amount and kind of excretion would have to be approximately determined; also, how 

 much of the food is expended in the form of motion and how much in the form of 

 heat. 



When the Government, therefore, is prepared to cement the floor of the pound, 

 which would be the very smallest part of the cost of such experiments; build com- 

 partments and shelters for the lobsters; guarantee that there shall be abundance of 

 water throughout the year, with no danger of the animals being frozen to death in 

 winter nor sickened by excessive heat in summer; lastly, when the Government is 

 willing to provide salary to secure the services of a trained and experienced 

 physiologist and provide him with a comfortable house at Long Beach throughout the 

 year, then and not till then will it be possible to use the cement pound for experi- 

 ments in the feeding and growth of lobsters. As the " baianced ration " for cattle 

 was not discovered by an untrained farmer, so the balanced ration for lobsters will 

 not be discovered by an untrained fisherman, who throws " gurry " at his beasts and 

 calls the act scientific feeding. 



MATING GROUNDS. 



The cement pound, though of no use as a location for a rearing plant of the 

 Wickford type, may nevertheless be utilized, I believe, for another purpose altogether. 

 If a sufficient depth of water can be retained in it from one high tide until the next, 

 if shelters are provided for the animals, and if they are properly cared for and regu- 

 larly fed, the pond may be used as a mating ground for commercial lobsters. 



That there is need for a restricted ground for mating purposes appears to be clear 

 from the following facts : Only 10 or 12 per cent of the female lobsters caught along 

 the Massachusetts coast are berried (see Rhode Island Fish Commission report for 

 1906). In St. Marys bay and the Bay of Fundy the percentage is much less. Why 

 should not almost all the females carry eggs if* their natural habit is to spawn every 



38a— 4i 



