220 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH, COMMISSION. 



eggs or not, aud another is that the lobster often matures at a much later period than 

 has been generally supposed. The legal size limit in Canadian waters fluctuated from 

 9 to 9 inches between 1874 and 1892. In 1895 the legislature amended the law, 

 making it illegal to take lobsters less than 10 inches long. In 1895 the legal limit 

 in Maine, Massachusetts, -New Hampshire, and New York was 10 inches; in Eliode 

 Island 10, and in Connecticut 6 inches. The legislature of Massachusetts was ready 

 to reduce the 10 limit the next year, but its act was vetoed by Governor Wolcott. 



Some lobsters are known to produce eggs when 8 inches long; therefore, it is said, 

 a 10^- inch limit is too great. This can not be allowed. While a few female lobsters 

 produce eggs when 8 inches long, the majority at this size do not. The same is prob- 

 ably true of lobsters 9 and 9 inches long. Some lobsters do not spawn until after 

 reaching the length of 12 inches, and the limit of 10 inches is none too great. Thus 

 we see how such attempts to protect the lobster have failed through the legalized 

 killing of immature individuals. 



The legislation on the subject of close seasons forms a curious piece of reading. 

 Ignorance of the fact that the lobster carries her eggs for the period of ten months 

 has been an element of confusion here. In Canada, almost every combination of the 

 calendar has been tried. Close seasons for canning establishments, for fishermen, and 

 for different sections of the coast have been tried in vain, but no combination has 

 brought good or lasting results. 



The object of a close season is to let the animal breed in peace, but there is a 

 peculiar difficulty in the case of the lobster which makes it impossible to confer any 

 protection upon it worth mentioning by a short close season. The difficulty lies in 

 the fact that the animal does not drop its eggs in the sea or deposit them on some 

 foreign substance, as the older naturalists believed, but carries them on its body. 

 Consequently, in order to protect the eggs you have to protect the egg lobster. This 

 has been attempted in the United States and in Canada by making it illegal to sell 

 the " berried lobster.' 7 But the object is defeated by the ease with which this law can 

 be evaded. It is only necessary to scrape the eggs from the body. Again, to obviate 

 this, attempts have been made to allow the capture of "berried lobsters" and to buy 

 up the eggs from the canneries and hatch them by artificial means. On this point I 

 shall speak later. 



The period of egg-laying on the coast of the United States extends, as we have 

 seen, over the months of July and August. If fishing in these months is closed the 

 spa \vners are protected. 1 This can be done, and would result in some good, but at 

 either end the spawning frmales would be subjected to fire. First, there being no 

 way to detect females which are ready to spawn, these would be killed in great 

 numbers up to the beginning of the period; then, after the close in September, if 

 ogg lobsters were captured and the eggs removed and destroyed, the good which has 

 been done would be partially neutralized. 



Protection to the immature lobster by regulating the construction of traps, making 

 the distance between the lower slats sufficiently great to let out all the lobsters except 

 those of the legal size 10 inches is a measure which, if generally carried out, could 

 not fail to be beneficial. 



The canning industry is undoubtedly responsible for a large share in the depletion 

 of this fishery. It is operated in the spring, and for years has destroyed large 



1 This period is well covered by the close period in Massachusetts, which extends from June 20 

 to September 20. 



