360 Fortieth Annual Meeting 



The produce of the Maine lobster fishery for 1907 is 

 stated to have been between 8,000,000 and 9,000,000 pounds 

 of lobsters 10^ inches and over in length. This seems 

 a large quantity, but if we go back fifteen years, to 1892, 

 we find that it is only about one-half the amount recorded 

 for that year, namely, 17,642,677 pounds. But is it not 

 rather significant that the smaller quantity was worth in 

 market nearly three times as much as the larger, or 

 $2,000,000 as compared with $663,043? To catch the 

 smaller number, moreover, required some 400 more men, 

 using I do not know how many more traps, and working I 

 cannot say how much wider or more diverse a field. 



Now it is such facts as these which lead us to pause when 

 we hear of increased yields to this industry, and inquire if 

 our friend has duly considered the variables in his problem. 

 For until he has done this his assertions have no value, and 

 may be grossly misleading both to himself and to others. 

 So far as I have been able to analyze statistics at present 

 available the conclusion seems inevitable that the lobster 

 fisheries in both America and Europe have steadily declined 

 from the time when they began to be pursued with the means 

 and energy characteristic of modern conditions, beginning 

 in Canada nearly a quarter of a century ago. The cause of 

 this decline is evident; more lobsters have been destroyed 

 than nature has been allowed to replace by her slow processes 

 of reproduction and growth. 



How have we tried to check this declining tendency by 

 legislative and other means? Various curative measures 

 have been adopted, which will be discussed more fully in 

 another place, but for the present we can dwell upon the 

 two most important only, the gauge laws, and the practice 

 of artificially hatching the eggs and immediately liberating 

 the young in the sea. The first is prohibitory, penalizing 

 the destruction and sale of lobsters of either sex under 9 or 

 \0y2 inches in length, while the second is a constructive 

 measure, by means of which it is hoped to increase the 

 species. 



