708 HISTOEY AND METHODS OP THE FISHERIES. 



J. Marston & Sons state that, "A large catch per trap now is five lobsters ; twenty years ago 

 it was twenty lobsters." 



The information obtained by Mr. B. E. Earll, in 1880, lead to the following conclusions: A 

 fair average catch to a pot per day is one marketable and three small lobsters. Formerly the 

 catch was much larger; twenty to twenty-five years ago the average was about seven lobsters to 

 a pot, averaging in weight from 4 to 6 pounds each. A fair average weight now for marketable 

 lobsters is about 2 pounds. 



BIDDEFORD POOL, ME. The opinion is universal among the lobstermen of this region that 

 lobsters have greatly decreased in abundance and size during the present generation. It is 

 probable that lobsters were among the products of the early fisheries at this place, which began 

 in the first part of the seventeenth century; but as a distinct and separate industry, the lobster 

 fishery is said to date back only about thirty years. "At that time," according to Mr. D. B. I,e 

 Gallee, of Biddeford Pool, " there were only two or three men, with about thirty traps each, fishing 

 during the summer to supply the local trade, and tending their traps twice weekly. This fishery 

 continued until about eight years ago, never employing more than eight or ten men at a time, the 

 same men engaging in the trawl line fishery in the winter. But lobsters became scarce near shore 

 and the men. were induced to begin a winter fishery. There have been, since then, as many as 

 thirty men and five smacks, of about 20 tons each, engaged in the winter fishery, and forty men 

 with two thousand traps, in the summer fishery." With reference to the injurious effects result- 

 ing from the right to sell small lobsters, Mr. Le Gallee justly remarks : "There is no factory 

 located at this place, but smacks come here in the summer to supply the factories farther north. 

 They pay on an average 1 cents each for lobsters, which five or six months later would bring 

 from 4 to 7 cents each, thereby causing much injury to the fishermen. Likewise, the months when 

 the law is not in force are the only ones when soft lobsters are caught in abundance, and at these 

 times the small lobsters are also the most plentiful. Thereby the destruction of the lobster is 

 greatly furthered by the existing laws." 



The average daily catch per trap at present is said to be about t wo lobsters, which is considered 

 to be one-third the average catch of twenty years ago. As to the decrease in size, it is said that 

 in 1876, only sixty-five lobsters, on an average, were required to fill a barrel, while now eighty are 

 necessary. Fifty dollars per month is regarded as fair earnings for a lobster fisherman. 



WELLS, ME. Lobsters have not heen abundant in this locality for several years past. 



YORK, ME. The catch has greatly fallen off in late years, and lobsters have also become 

 reduced in size. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. Mr. Richard Fowler, of Seabrook, states that lobsters are now small and 

 scarce. Mr. A. 0. Locke, of Bye, writes as follows : " A large catch now would be one hundred 

 lobsters to a haul ; twenty years ago it was two hundred to a haul. The decrease during the 

 past twenty years has been one half." 



"The catch of lobsters thus far in New Hampshire has been only about two-thirds that of last 

 season at the same time. The scarcity of lobsters puzzles the oldest fishermen and seems to be 

 wholly unaccountable."* 



GLOUCESTER, MASS. In former times the fishermen made as high as $500 in a season, but 

 now their season's stock seldom exceeds $200. Nearly all the fishermen consulted in the Glouces- 

 ter district claim that there has been a marked decrease in the abundance of lobsters during the 

 past twenty years, amounting in the estimation of some, to about 75 per cent. Capt. Epes W. 



* Cape Ann Advertiser, June 23, 1871. 



