674 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



From all that has been said concerniug the propagating of the mack- 

 erel, it will be self-evident that there is no danger whatever of destroy- 

 ing their spawning-places by too extensive fishing, as has often been 

 maintained with regard to the herring-fisheries. Nor do I believe that 

 the floating net fisheries carried on in the open sea near our southern 

 and western coasts can have any marked influence on the number or 

 migrations of the mackerel. If, therefore, a decided decrease has been 

 noticed in the mackerel-fisheries on our southern and western coasts, the 

 cause of this must not be sought in the manner in which nor in the ex- 

 tent to which the fisheries have been carried on, but rather in the pecu- 

 liar physical conditions of the open sea, which have induced the great 

 mass of mackerel of late years to spawn at a greater distance from the 

 coast than usual. It is well known that a similar phenomenon has for 

 quite a number of years been observed in the spring-herring fisheries. 

 This similarity between the two fisheries is certainly not purely accidental. 

 In my opinion the herring and the mackerel agree in their pelagian 

 mode of life, and the migrations of both these fish must therefore be de- 

 pendent on analogous conditions of the open sea ; although the distribu- 

 tion of the herring and the mackerel throughout the sea is essentially 

 different, I consider it as certain that the changed physical conditions 

 wljich must be supposed to have exercised their influence on the kind of 

 fish found in one basin of the sea, cannot have remained entirely with- 

 out influence on the portion of the sea close to it where the other kind 

 of fish were living. 



2. — THE LOBSTER AND THE LOBSTER-FISHERIES ON OUR SOUTHERN 

 AND "UTESTERN COASTS. 



Like the mackerel-fisheries, the lobster-fisheries on our coasts have, of 

 late years, become very important, which may be seen from the large 

 number of lobsters which are annually exported to England, not count- 

 ing those which are consumed at home and exported to other countries, 

 especially to Denmark. At present, the lobster-fisheries are carried on 

 •with varying success along our whole southern coast and along a great 

 portion of our western coast. The northernmost point where I have 

 observed lobsters is the Loffoden, where some years ago I had occasion 

 to examine a recently-caught young lobster which was brought to me 

 as au animal entirely unknown in these regions, and regarded with 

 much curiosity by the inhabitants. 



Lobsters are almost exclusively caught in traps made of wicker-work 

 ("lobster-baskets"), which are set at a depth of 1 to 5 fathoms and 

 baited with small fish. As these fishing-implements are, comparatively 

 speaking, cheap and easily worked, so that even infirm and aged people 

 can attend to them from a small boat, these fisheries are of great im- 

 portance to the poorer portion of our coast population. And as the 



