6 GEORGE V SESSIONAL PAPER No. 38a A. 1918 



XII. 



POSSIBLE LOBSTER PLANTING AREAS OX THE EAST COAST OF 



VANCOUVER ISLAND, B.C. 



By C. McLeax Eraser, Ph.D., etc., Curator, Pacific Coast Biological Station, 



Departure Bay, B.C. 



(With Map.) 



1. Review of Attempts to Plant Lobsters in Pacific Waters. 



The idea of successfully transplanting lobsters from, the Atlantic coast to the 

 Pacific has been to the fore many times since the first shipment was attempted by the 

 United States Eish Commission in 1873, or since the first successful transportation 

 and planting in the following year. The fisheries of British Columbia did not come 

 into much prominence until later, but when they did, the idea found lodgment among 

 Canadians also, and a first attempt to transplant these crustaceans was made in the 

 summer of 1896. According to the Fisheries Rei^ort of that year (pp. 289-291), 600 

 live lobsters left Halifax on July 2, about 50 per cent of which perished en route. 

 The distribution is reported as follows : " At New Westminster we transferred the 

 whole shipment to the tug provided. We steamed over 100 miles from five o'clock in 

 the morning till nine at night, but could not find the water sufficiently salty anywhere, 

 the whole straits of Georgia being highly coloured with floating sediment from the 

 Eraser river. We put 196 live lobsters, including two veiy large ones weighing over 

 10 pounds each, and many females with eggs, on inshore grounds adjacent to Nanaimo 

 lighthouse in charge of Mr. Brown. We put seventy-two near- the shore, surrounded 

 by a net. The rest we put overboard in deeper water en route to Nanaimo, hoping 

 that the water would be more salty near the bottom." 



In 1905 a second shipment was brought out, starting from Halifax June 8 (cf. 

 Fisheries Report, p. 285). This consisted of twelve crates containing 590, and eleven 

 barrels or patent carriers containing 435, a total of 1,025, the majority of which 

 arrived safely at Vancouver. Those in the boxes were deposited " in a bay just above 

 the Second Narrows on the south side of Burrard inlet, about 5 miles above Van- 

 couver, the bottom consisting of rocks and kelp." Of the remainder, " one barrel and 

 three berried lobsters were planted in Secret cove, Sechelt peninsula, one barrel and 

 three berried lobstrs in Long bay, southeast corner of Gambler island, one barrel and 

 three berried lobsters in Snug cove, east of Bowen island, three barrels and fifteen 

 berried lobsters in False narrows, four barrels and the remainder of the berried 

 lobsters in Nanoose bay." 



The third shipment was made in 1908 (cf. Fisheries Report, p. 271). This con- 

 sisted of fifteen crates containing 1,620 lobsters, of which " some 1,100 were ultimately 

 placed in the large crates in Sooke harbour and kept there for some weeks, which 

 proved beyond a doubt that this crustacean would live and thrive in Pacific waters. 

 The distribution was subsequently made in various waters." 



In the following year, I believe, a number of eggs were hatched out at the Bio- 

 logical station under the supervision of the late Mr. G. W. Taylor and Dr. A. G. 

 Huntsman. The young lobsters were liberated in Departure bay. 



