744 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



10. COAST REVIEW OF THE LOBSTER INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES, FOR 

 1880, STATISTICAL SUMMATIONS, TABLES, ETC. 



MAINE. 

 PASSAMAQUODDY DISTRICT. 



This district includes the line of coast from Calais, on the Saint Croix River, to West Quoddy 

 Head, in Lubec. Lobster-fishing is carried on mainly from the lower part of the Saint Croix, 

 from Eastport and from Lubec. The fishing season is practically that during which the canneries 

 are open, beginning, by law, April 1, and ending August 1. Some years, however, as in 1879, the 

 season does not open until the middle or latter part of April, and generally it closes as early as 

 the middle of July, the lobsters becoming scarce, or largely soft-shell, about that time. Many of 

 the lobstermen fish only about two months, which is said to be about the average length of the 

 season for all of the fishermen. June is considered to be cue of the best months for fishing. Lob- 

 sters are said to be most abundant on rocky bottoms, and in such places the traps are commonly 

 set; but some fishing is also done on smooth bottoms of gravel and sand. In the spring, from 

 April 1 to about the middle of May, the pots are mainly set outside of the island of Campobello, 

 from Head Harbor to Herring Cove. Fishing first begins in depths of 20 to 25 fathoms, but, as 

 the season advances, the pots are gradually shifted shoreward into much shallower water. About 

 the middle of May the fishermen begin upon the so-called inside grounds, which are very exten- 

 sive, nnd reach from Lubec to near Saint John, New Brunswick. Eastport is the only market for 

 most of this region. During the summer the pots are usually set in depths of 3 to 10 fathoms. 

 Many lobsters are brought in from about the Wolves, on the New Brunswick coast, and a few 

 also from Grand Manan Both the Saint Croix and Pembroke Rivers furnish a profitable summer 

 lobster fishery, the supplies from those waters containing, it is said, many larger individuals than 

 are obtained elsewhere. The lobsters from Grand Manan are described as being smaller and 

 poorer in quality than those from along the mainland; while those taken in South Bay, Lubec, 

 and the Pembroke River run above the average size. 



A curious fact concerning the occurrence of soft lobsters, which influences the market to a 

 certain extent for a limited period in this region, has been described to us by several reliable persons. 

 According to their accounts, although soft lobsters are more or less abundant from the middle of 

 May to August, they are far more plentiful from the 1st to the 10th of May than at any other time 

 during the fishing season. During this period sometimes fully one-half the catch will be soft- 

 shell and unfit for use, and great care has to be exercised in making contracts to furnish large 

 quantities of lobsters at this time. In April soft-shell lobsters are quite rare, especially during 

 the first part of the month. August and September correspond with the first ten days of May in 

 the abundance of soft lobsters, and this is said to account for the fact, that during these two 

 months the lobster fishery has never proved successful about Eastport. There is no fall lobster 

 fishery of any account in the Passamaquoddy district. 



The lobster fishermen in this district own their gear, go singly or in pairs, and use from forty 

 to one hundred pots to a boat, the average number being about sixty. On rough bottoms the pots 

 are set on single warps but on smooth bottoms they are worked in trawls. According to a careful 

 estimate by Mr. George It. Ray, of Eastport, the average catch per boat for the season of 1879 (April 

 20 to August 1) was 3,939 pounds, the lobsters averaging in weight for the entire catch about one 

 pound each. The average catch for 1880 was much less, and the season shorter, lobsters having 

 been less abundant. In 1879, 3,050 barrels of fresh lobsters were shipped from Eastport, and, in 



