LOBSTER INVESTIGATIONS 71 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 38a 



From the evidence which we have collected thus far at Long Beach, it is quiti: 

 clear that some lobsters spawn annually, some biennially, and some do not spawn 

 oven biennially. Of course, it is only fair to point out again that the conditions in 

 both pond and pound are unnatural, and, therefore, we need not be surprised when 

 we meet with departures from the normal habits of the animal, whether the habit be 

 annual or biennial spawning. 



A REVIEW. 



In looking over the operations of the pound for the past two years, let it be 

 frankly acknowledged at the outset that the main purpose for which it was built has 

 liot been realized. Can it be fairly said, then, that the money spent in the purchase 

 of the pond and the construction of the pound has been wasted? I think not. 



In addition to being a sanctuary for berried females, the pound has brought 

 about the discovery that the numbers of lobsters may be increased by bringing the 

 Sf'xes together. This, of course, was not the primary object for which the pound was 

 built. So far as can be judged from public reports and from the Board's corres- 

 pondence with the Fisheries Branch, the discovery was made by accident. Sixty- 

 two commercial lobsters were sent to the pound in 1914 for the purpose of observing 

 whether lobsters spawn annually or biennially. Long before a conclusion could be 

 reached on the subject, it was discovered that 64 per cent, of the forty-seven females 

 in the pound had extruded fertilized eggs — a most astonishing fact, when every 

 fisherman in Digby County knows that only about one female in every hundred 

 carries eggs. This opinion of the fishermen is corroborated by Mr. Andrew Halkett. 

 In his report upon the Baker Lobster pound, Cape Breton, 1909-10, page 16, he 

 mentions a trip which he took with Rafuse & Son, fishermen, to seventy-five traps, 

 e ontaining altogether fifty-six males and sixty females. Only one of the females was 

 berried. 



Why this great difference in egg-bearing between open-sea lobsters and those in 

 Long Beach pound? One obvious explanation is that it is due to the close inter- 

 course between male and female lobsters in a compartment 20 feet long by 10 feet 

 wide. The fact that 40 per cent, of the females at Long Beach this summer (1915) 

 extruded eggs under most unfavourable conditions appears to corroborate the discovery. 

 At any rate, the results of the two years' observations, in my judgement, amply 

 justify the department in building a few more enclosures at different points along 

 the maritime coast in order to test still further the extent to which egg-bearing may 

 be artificially promoted. 



Surely the expenditure of money on industrial and economic problems is one of 

 the functions of Government. If it is not, then much of the expenditure on Experi- 

 mental Agricultural Stations and on investigations into our peat and other mineral 

 resources is unjustifiable. Far, however, from the money hitherto spent upon such 

 scientific investigations being wasted, it is money well spent. Similarly, I trust it 

 will be realized in a few years that the money spent upon Long Beach pond will have 

 been amply justified either by the direct or indirect scientific results that have 

 been achieved. 



58a— 6i 



