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supply has fallen off during the last seven years. Ten or 

 twelve years ago he used to import 600,000 lobsters a year 

 from Norway, from three districts only. He is now working 

 six districts, double the amount of coast, and the six dis- 

 tricts only produced last year from 400,000 to 500,000 

 lobsters." Other evidence elicited by the Commissioners 

 resulted in their verdict that " there is little room left for 

 doubting that there has been a very serious falling off in 

 lobsters in Norway." 



The causes that have contributed towards the decadence 

 of the lobster fisheries generally are relegated in the report 

 to three distinct categories. I. The overfishing of the 

 inshore districts. 2. The destruction of undersized fish. 

 3. The consumption of the eggs or spawn for culinary 

 purposes. For the second only of the evils thus sum- 

 marised that of the destruction of undersized fish has a 

 remedy been actually applied, and beyond doubt with 

 highly beneficial effects, through the appointment for 

 lobsters of the eight-inch gauge, fish within which length; 

 by the Act 40 and 41 Viet. c. 42, 1877, are now of illegal 

 size. The suggestion of a close time for lobsters during 

 their spawning season, to prevent overfishing and to protect 

 their eggs, has not been found practicable, since it would, 

 in the first place, interfere unjustly with the inherited rights 

 of the fishermen, while, in the second instance, it would 

 interrupt the supply at the period when lobsters are, as an 

 article of food, in their very best condition. 



Assuming for the time that both the protection of the 

 undersized young and that of the adults, during the spawn- 

 ing season, had become binding by law, I feel justified in 

 asserting that we should have, even then, only arrived half 

 way towards the root of the evil, and that the prime factor 

 in the decadence of our lobster fisheries is to be found in 



