98 THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF ANIMALS 



USES OF ANIMALS 



Indirect Use as Food. — Just as plants form the food of ani- 

 mals, so some animals are food for others. Man may make use 

 of such food directly or indirectly. Many mollusks, as the bar- 

 nacle and mussel, are eaten by fishes. Other fish live upon tiny 



organisms, water fleas and other small 

 crustaceans. These in turn feed upon 

 still smaller animals, and we may go 

 back and back until finally we come 

 to the Protozoa and one-celled water 

 plants as an ultimate source of food. 



Direct Use as Food. Lower Forms. 

 — The forms of life lower than the 

 Crustacea are of little use directly as 

 food, although the Chinese are very 

 fond of one of the Echinoderms, a 

 holothurian. 



Crustacea as Food. — Crustaceans, 

 however, are of considerable value for 

 food, the lobster fisheries in particular 

 being of importance. The lobster is 

 highly esteemed as food, and is rapidly 

 disappearing from our coasts as the 

 result of overfishing. Between twenty 

 and thirty million are yearly taken on 

 the North Atlantic coast. This means 

 a value at present prices of about 

 5,000,000. Laws have been enacted in New York and other 

 states against overfishing. Egg-carrjdng lobsters must be returned 

 to the water ; all smaller than six to nine inches in length (the law 

 varies in different states) must be put back ; other restrictions are 

 placed upon the taking of the animals, in hope of saving the race 

 from extinction. Some states now hatch and care for the young 

 for a period of time ; the United States Bureau of Fisheries is also 

 doing much good work, in the hope of restocking to some extent 

 the now almost depleted waters. 



North American lobster. This 

 specimen, preserved at the 

 U. S. Fish Commission at 

 Woods Hole, was of unusual 

 size and weighed over twenty 

 pounds. 



