INSHORE FISHERIES 



239 



per cent greater ; the output for 1905 was 37 per cent less, 

 while the value was 59 per cent greater. 1 



The artificial propagation of lobsters has been undertaken 

 for many years by the National Government, through the 

 Bureau of Fisheries, co-operating with the states to main- 

 tain the lobster supply. The work of gathering brood 

 lobsters has been carried on extensively in recent years. 

 Through arrangements with the several states the lobster 

 fishermen are permitted to retain the egg-bearing or 

 "berried" lobsters until they may be collected by an agent 

 of the bureau, who pays the fishermen a little more for 

 their fish than the market price. The "berried" lobsters 

 are taken to the hatcheries, stripped of their eggs, and 

 later returned to their native localities to be liberated. 



From 1888 to 1903, the number of lobster fry that were 

 planted by the Bureau of Fisheries was about 880,000,000. 

 The results of this work have been beneficial to the fishery, 

 but hardly more than to check the decline. The process 

 of artificially hatching the eggs is a comparatively simple 

 matter. The problem has been to rear the young through 

 the prolonged period of larvae helplessness until they were 

 able to care for themselves. The many difficulties of the 



1 Comparative statistics of the New England lobster catch. 



