LOBSTERS AND THE LOBSTER PROBLEM IN MASSACHUSETTS. 217 
fectly inadequate. On certain parts of the coast the size has been increased to 9 inches, 
and the method that I personally favor, for the moment at any rate, pending more 
detailed information, is that, in order to meet the prejudices of the fishermen, the mini- 
mum size should be gradually increased—if it is only by half an inch per annum—until 
such a minimum size is fixed as will give at least a fair chance to every lobster—every 
female lobster—to reproduce once before it is brought to the market. 
With respect to the very ingenious suggestion that has been made of a lobster trap 
which shall let out all the little ones and exclude all the big ones, I would suggest that 
the practical effect of that, if it works out as the fishermen would like to see it work, 
would be that you would allow the fishermen to catch all the lobsters at the repro- 
ductive size. They would spare them until they reach that size, and in the meantime 
they would be prevented from catching the larger patriarchs of the ocean. But those 
patriarchs of the ocean will not live forever, and the time will come when they will die 
off. You will then have killed off all those of the intermediate, egg-bearing size, and 
will only have those of the smaller non-egg-bearing size left. 
Mr. Paut, Nortu (Ohio). Mr. President, it occurs to me that we of the West, who 
know nothing about the lobster, except our own peculiar brotherly kind that we have 
out there, do not help youreastern people to the extent of stopping our states from being 
the dumping ground of these short lobsters. All we see with us is the short lobster, and 
it seems to us that if we could pass laws in our state, where we do not raise lobsters, 
that would prevent the sale of lobsters below the legal limit, we would be assisting 
very materially in the enforcement of the lobster laws in the states where they raise 
them. The 6 and 8 inch lobster is common with us, except when they get man size. 
The PRESIDENT. The question is raised: At what time does the lobster reach 
sexual maturity, i. e., the average time, as indicated by its size? I know that the 
United States Government has made a great many observations on that, and I dare 
say that Doctor Field has them at his tongue’s end. Do you remember, Doctor Field? 
The smallest lobster to be found with eggs, I believe, was 734 inches. 
Dr. GeorGE W. FreLtp. How many? That was only one individual. Less than 
3 per cent of those that have eggs are under 9g inches long, and the great bulk of those 
we have taken have had an average size of about 11 inches. There is a small number 
above that. We will say that with a curve the number below 11 inches and the num- 
ber above 11 inches is about the same; but those above 11 inches will produce at 
least five times as many eggs as those on the other side—as those between g and 11 
inches. You doubtless know that the first litter of the lobster is about 5,000 to 10,000 
eggs, and then each two years later it doubles—1o,o00, 20,000, 40,000, 80,000, the 
largest being 96,000 eggs in a 17-inch lobster. 
Now, our contention is that if you make a perpetually closed period on the large 
lobsters you preserve those large lobsters which produce eggs and have a continual 
supply of eggs hatching, and have young ones growing up from them; whereas, at 
present you have a wide-open season, so to speak, on all the lobsters above 9 inches 
which are exposed to capture. Under the laws proposed it will be legal to take them 
only when between 9 and 11 inches, and they are protected except during a very small 
portion of this breeding age, i. e., when below 9 inches. 
In regard to the simile of the cattle breeder, it is perhaps not necessary to say that 
there is no sane cattle breeder who would kill off his very best stock. He would keep 
the best stock for breeders. He would kill off a proportion of the small stock, and 
keep the very best selected animals for breeders, and that seems to me is precisely what 
we ought to do in the case of the lobster. 
