THE LOBSTER FISHERY. 723 



coast which I visited, I found but very little difference both with regard to the time of hatching 

 and the time of shedding. Thus, there is no reason for having a different season of protection in 

 these districts. But as memorials have been sent to the Department of the Interior from several 

 places, asking for an extension of the protective season, it will probably be best, in order to avoid 

 dissatisfaction, to leave it to each community to extend the protective season wherever there is a 

 very general demand for it. But I must say that if protection is to answer its purpose, it will be 

 necessary for the different districts to organize a system of superintendence, so that the laws may 

 be strictly carried out. As matters now stand, there is and I speak from personal observation 

 as much fishing going on on our southern coast during the season of protection as at other seasons. 

 Where the protective season lasts only a month, those lobsters which have been caught when fish- 

 ing is prohibited are generally kept in large boxes until the protective season is passed, when they 

 are brought to market. But many of these closely packed lobsters die in the boxes, and those 

 which are left are so lean and miserable that they are of little or no value, and are necessarily thrown 

 away." * 



GREAT BRITAIN. The fishery commissioners of England, in the years 1875 and 1876, made a 

 thorough inspection of the crab and lobster fisheries of the English and Scottish coasts. All the 

 principal fishing stations were visited, and from personal observations and the testimony of fish- 

 ermen and dealers a very elaborate report, embodying every detail of their investigations, was 

 prepared and published in 1877.t The conclusions at which they arrived regarding the state of 

 the fishery and the suggestions made for its improvement, are contained in the following extract 

 from their report : 



" In a great many cases it is not very easy to conclude whether the fishery is falling off or not. 

 The increase in price is certainly in almost every case greater than the decrease in the supply. 

 The take in many cases is not so large as it used to be, but in nearly every place it is more valu- 

 able. The increased price and the greater facilities which railways have afforded for bringing 

 the fish to market, have attracted more fishermen to the pursuit, and have induced them to follow 

 the crabs and lobsters into much deeper water than formerly. It is no easy matter, therefore, to 

 compare the results of the fishing now with those which were experienced fifty or twenty-five 

 years ago. The take now is divided among a greater number of fishermen. The area of the fishery 

 has been greatly extended. On the whole, however, we believe that we are in the right in con- 

 cluding that in small fisheries, or fisheries in confined areas, there has been in every case a marked 

 decrease of fish; while in large and exposed fisheries there has been no decrease whatever. 

 Take, for example, the fisheries off the Land's End, the Lizard, and the Start. All these fisheries 

 comprise large areas of sea bottom, all of them are in exposed situations, and the powers of man 

 have been hitherto incapable of exhausting them. But there are other fisheries in an exactly 

 opposite position. A description will be found, for instance, in the evidence which we received at 

 Wembury, relating to a small fishery off the Eddystone Kocks. The fishery is contained in a few 

 acres, and, though the situation is exposed, the area is so small that the fishermen have been able 

 to exhaust it. The same conclusion is true of the fisheries which are situated in confined bays, 

 such, for instance, as that at Falmouth. The fishermen there, exposed to no bad weather, are 

 able to pursue the fishery at every season of the year. High prices have induced them to increase 

 the efficiency of their gear, and the gradual decay of the fishery, which overfishing has occa- 

 sioned, has compelled them to fish harder and harder to earn a livelihood. The fishermen in 



* Reports made to the Department of the Interior, of Investigations of the Salt- Water Fisheries of Norway daring 

 the years 1874-1877, by Prof. G. O. Sars. 



t Reports on the Crab and Lobster Fisheries of England and Wales, by Frank Backland and Spencer Walpole, 

 Esqrs., ' * of Scotland, by Frank Buckhind and Spencer Walpole, Esqrs., &o. London, 1877. 



