]!M; 'I'hirhj-sixlh All II mil Mrrlimj 



rosult AVduhl he oil ilk" uuiuImt of (--s hiid if all llir \n\)<{rr~. 

 alH)\c h'li and a half indies wciv lo he c-aii<i-|i1. and sec the 

 rutilicr cirrcl if all llic lol.stcrs aliovc nine inches were lo he 

 wijxMl out. ^'oii would \\i]ie out al one stroke the entire iv- 

 prothictivo capacity of the race. Now. the only savinu' thiii,u- 

 in the present lobster law, is the fact that we do not eatch 

 all the lohsters. and a eej'taiii nuinhei' of these are left to re- 

 liroduee. But -without question it would he far better for the 

 lobster if all these lobsters above this age were to be presei-\ed 

 for breeding purposes. Perhaps I onght to say in addition, that, 

 as offsets to this destruetiveness. are the first efforts to maintain 

 and buy from fishemnen, the egg-hearing lobsters. That takes 

 care, of course, of an additional number. By using our best 

 efforts, we have sueeerded in biiving. during the last two rears, 

 about (i.iKXI lobsters. On those, ai»|n-o.\imately lOO!) or l.")0(> 

 have been sent to \\'oods" Hole: a siniilai- number have been sen! 

 to Gloucester; the balance has been taken out to sea five or ten 

 miles, and libei-ated. A\'e have ])uiiclied holes in the tails of 

 those 6001 lobsters, by nu'ans of an ordinary harness punch, 

 and in that time we have bought 77, if 1 remember correctly, 

 (less than 80) of those lobsters the second time, and we haw 

 bought less than five, three times. ]\lind you, those lobsters 

 are taken out as green egg lobsters, or cliietly green egg lobsters, 

 in the month of July, ten miles off shore, and there liberated: 

 and only that relatively small number have come l)ack and have 

 l)een caught within a year, or within practically ten months. 



iSTow another most important factor in maintaining the loli- 

 sters has been the fact that the United States' bureau of fisheries, 

 have been far-siglib'd enough and have carried out with admir- 

 able success, the utilization of those eggs, which otherwise would 

 have been destroyed by the fishermen. They have liought those 

 eggs from the fisbernieii. and have hatched out many millions of 

 eggs and delivered them in the water, — eggs wdiich otherwise 

 would have been destroyed l)y the fishermen. The eggs are cer- 

 tainly destroyed al the jireseiit time by fishermen in certain sec- 

 tions, sections so remote that they are not at the iiresent time 

 reached by collectors. F have in mind ])arlicularly the extreme 

 end of Cape Cod: where a large number of tislu'riiien go and 

 take a wliiskhrooni or lu'usb, and lirusb the eii'a's from the lob- 



