THE LOBSTEE FISHERY. 731 



to remain. Were it not for the duty, our fishermen could not live and compete with the provinces. 

 I think we now get as many lobsters as ever, only the size is very small. I think there should be 

 more stringent enforcement of the law, and when we are not allowed to pack, fishermen should not 

 be allowed to take for the market. I think the fisheries should be regulated by the General Gov- 

 ernment, not by State law. There is too much private interest in the making and enforcement of 

 the law. They do the thing much better in the provinces, where the fisheries are regulated by the 

 General Government. There should also be protection to packers ; the fishing ground should be 

 divided up so that one factory would not be competing with another on prices, making competi- 

 tion so close that neither the packers nor the fishertnenTTavo an interest in protecting the grounds 

 where they fish, and this cannot be properly done unless there is an interest in protecting the fish. 

 In some places in the British provinces the ground is divided up and apportioned out to the fac- 

 tories that pack lobsters, and no party can put out a salmon net without a lease from government, 

 and they will not grant a permit to interfere with one already placed. I have petitioned the Gen- 

 eral Government of Canada to have all the fishing ground apportioned to the factories. I have a 

 letter to-day saying they are bringing the matter before Parliament, and I think the law will pass." 



STATEMENT OF ME. GEORGE BURNHAM, JE. "The packing of lobsters as early as 1845 

 shows none of the trouble experienced at the present time viz, small light-meated fish. At that 

 date all lobsters under 3 pounds in weight were doubled and counted as one ; all such lobsters as are 

 now packed (then called snappers) were then thrown away ; in fact, we never used to catch many, 

 as the large lobsters took possession of the traps, driving out the small ones. 



" In the fall of 1854 I went to South Saint George, on the coast of Maine, to pack lobsters, and 

 sent a smack to Deer Isle, where the fishermen used hand nets, and 1,200 lobsters then caught filled 

 the smack's well. It would take of the lobsters we now catch from 7,000 to 8,000 to fill the same well. 



" The only remedy in my mind to preserve the lobsters is to have a close time they should 

 not be caught between the first day of August and the first day of March for market or canning. 



"The Massachusetts law is a good law if it could be carried out, but fishermen set their traps 

 for lobsters, and there is only one in five that is large enough to be marketable. Do the fishermen 

 throw the small ones overboard to again crawl into their traps and eat their bait, or do they take 

 them ashore and boil them for the hens and other purposes, or destroy them in some other way t 

 I am quite certain that the small lobsters once caught never again get the chance to eat bait from a 

 trap. Therefore I am convinced that the close time is the only sure way of preserving the lobster 

 fisheries." 



THE STATE LAWS RESPECTING THE LOBSTER FISHERY. 



Following are the laws of the several New England States and New York, relative to the 

 lobster fisheries, corrected to March 1, 1885. New Jersey has no lobster law, her fishery not 

 being of sufficient importance to demand legislation. 



Maine. 

 Chapter 69 of the public laws, passed in 1879. 



" SECTION 1. No person or corporation shall can or preserve any lobsters within the limits of 

 this State, from the first day of August to the first day of April following, under a penalty of five 

 dollars for every lobster so canned or preserved, and a further penalty of three hundred dollars 

 for each and every day on which such canning or preserving is done by said person or corporation 

 from the said first day of August to the said first day of April following. 



" SEC. 2. No lobster of less size than ten and one-half inches in length, measuring from one 



* Of the canning firm of Burnham & Morrell, of Portland, Me., November 24, 1880. 



