American Fisheries Society 363 



palliative since one-half of all mature females are without 

 eggs at all times of the year, and since there is an overlap 

 of a few weeks in summer when practically no females 

 carry eggs attached. These conditions are brought about 

 by the fact that the breeding periods are, as a rule, two years 

 apart, and by the further fact that the bulk of the old eggs 

 hatch before the bulk of the new ones are laid. 



The hatching of the eggs followed by the immediate 

 liberation of the fry is ineffective, because it cannot be done 

 on a scale commensurate with the requirements of nature, 

 or upon any scale which can be deemed profitable. This 

 is seen to be the case by applying the law of survival to the 

 records of the hatcheries during the period of their greatest 

 activities. Thus for the decennium 1893 to 1902 the com- 

 bined hatcheries of Newfoundland, Canada, and the 

 United States turned out, according to the records 

 4,214,000,000 young lobsters. At a rate of survival of 1 in 

 15,000, this would yield 280,933 adults, many of which 

 would certainly never enter a trap. At the lower rate of 

 1 in 10,000 the number of survivors would be less than half 

 a million. In other words, during the ten years in question 

 there were added to the ocean by this means some half 

 million lobsters, while at the same time its waters were de- 

 pleted of from half a billion to a billion adults. This suggests 

 drawing from the spigot while our barrel leaks from the 

 bung. Where then is it best to make the sacrifice, for some 

 sacrifice must be made. Plainly, it would seem, among the 

 younger breeding adults. Eat the young, and better lobsters 

 in the culinary sense, and save the older, and better in a 

 biological sense, for breeding purposes, as has been urged 

 by Dr. Field, of the Massachusetts Fish and Game Com- 

 mission. We do not say destroy all the young, for that 

 would be quickly fatal, but fortunately all the lobsters of 

 any given size do not enter the traps ; but protect the young 

 and adolescents at the one end, say up to the 9-inch length, 

 and the older lobsters at the other end, say after the 12 or 

 the 13-inch length has been reached. In a word, put the 



