Anicricdii Fislwiics Socicly 19T 



sters. AVe are absolutely certain that that is clone, but at the 

 present time, we can do nothing to stop it. We hope to do so 

 in the immediate fntnre. 



The oilier efPorts made, have been on the line of adopting a 

 close season. JSTow, while a close season may be effective in the 

 case of certain rapid-breeding animals, many birds, and possibly 

 .some fishes, it is very questionable whether it meets the results 

 expected in the case of lobsters, which are remarkably slow 

 l)reeders, reaching sexual maturity only after four to seven years, 

 and after that, breeding but once in two years and carrying the 

 eggs after they are ready, at least ten months attached to the ex- 

 ternal legs, and requiring practically another eight or ten 

 months to prepare ovarian eggs, before they are ready; so that 

 practically the female lobster lays but one litter of eggs every 

 two years, although there may be individuals which lay more 

 frequently. A close season further is subject to the criticism 

 that it restricts the demand during a certain definite season, 

 Init does not increase the supply. It makes absolutely no differ- 

 ence to the future of the lobster whether those eggs are destroyed 

 at the time they are laid, within a month after they are laid, or 

 a month before they are hatched. So, in order to have a close 

 season, you have got to have a close season extending over at 

 least ten montlis. And ordinarily the close season is placed upon 

 the lobster during the time when they are of use as food or dur- 

 ing the time when they do not pot in such large numbers, be- 

 cause of the fact that they are migTating to the shore in order 

 to shed. So that the ordinary close season from the first of June 

 or the first of July to the first of September seems to me little 

 adapted to meet conditions. 



Now, we have brought forward the suggestion, based ujion a 

 biological principle, that in all our domesticated animals, we 

 save the breeders, or at least a sufticient number of the breeders 

 to meet the market demand for the young, and use the young 

 for food. So the suggestion is made that we use only the lob- 

 sters, for example between nine and eleven inches, during the 

 period when they are of least value for reproductive purposes, 

 and at the same time of very considerable market value, and 

 then save those above eleven inches at the very crest of their re- 

 productive capacity, for reproductive purposes. Up to the pres- 



