THE NECESSITY OF THE PROTECTION OF THE 



ADULT LOBSTER, IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN 



THE LOBSTER FISHERIES 



BY G. AV. FIELD, 

 Chairman Massachusetts State Fish Commission, Boston, Mass. 



Mr. President and iienilemen of the American Fisheries Soci- 

 ety :- 



The main feature to which I wish to call your attention is. 

 the necessity of the protection of the adults, if we are to carry 

 on the experiments and the work undertaken by Dr. Mead, and 

 by the United States Bureau of Fisheries. It is too obvious to 

 necessitate the calling of further attention to the fact, that if we 

 want to raise young animals, we must have the eggs. Xow the 

 observations which we have made, — and I think they are con- 

 firmed elsewhere, both in the United States and in the British 

 provinces, — demonstrate the fact that the decline of the lobster 

 in point of numbers and in point of size is an actual fact: and 

 I do not think I need to dwell upon that side of it. So that, 

 when we come to consider the matter, we are actually face to 

 face, not alone with a condition, but with a condition and a 

 theory. That condition, as I have said, is the actual decline of 

 the lobster fishery. That decline is most obvious in the neiglilior- 

 hood of the gTcat markets of Xew Yorlc and of Boston, and pos- 

 sibly some points in Maine. In most sections of Maine, and in 

 parts of Nova Scotia, that decline is marked by the fact tliat 

 development of power-boats and of apparatus has gone on to 

 such an extent that the market is apparently well supplied with 

 lobster. But, on the other hand, greater efforts and wider ter- 

 ritories must be covered in order to meet the market demand. 



I have here some figures taken from the Massachusetts re- 

 port, and I may say that those are based upon the sworn state- 

 ments of the lobster fishermen, backed up somewhat by observa- 

 tions of persons interested in the industry. In ]890 (I select 

 those figures because our figures before that time were more or 

 less incomplete) in Massachusetts there were at work, 379 fisher- 

 men, and in 1906, there were at work 335 fishermen. In 1890, 



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