202 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION, 
extent and value prior to the census investigations of 1880. We 
are, therefore, left without much reliable data for comparing its 
past and present conditions, and for solving the many problems 
which now, in the minds of many, seem to threaten its con- 
tinued prosperity. 
The great question at issue, and one which demands the earn- 
est attention of every lobster fisherman and dealer, is whether 
lobsters are decreasing in abundance, and will eventually be- 
come rare and difficult to obtain, or whether they are still as 
plentiful as ever and show no indications of approaching ex- 
tinction. While we hope for the latter, we are forced to ac- 
knowledge that a carefuf study of all the materials at our com- 
mand inclines us to the belief that the abundance, of lobsters 
has very perceptibly diminished within comparatively recent 
times, and that, unless some active measures are instituted to 
prevent continued decrease in the future, a great and irrepara- 
ble injury to the fishery will ensue. 
Although, as we have just said, the lobster fishery is without 
a carefully recorded history, we have been enabled, through the 
assistance of many intelligent fishermen and dealers, some of 
whom have shown themselves to be very capable observers, to 
trace back the conditions of the fishery through a number of 
years. The results so obtained have been embodied in a report 
prepared for publication by the United States Fish Commis- 
sion. It has been suggested that a short statement of some of 
the facts bearing upon the supposed decrease might be of in- 
terest to the members of this Association, and it is for that pur- 
pose that the following brief notes have been prepared: 
Concerning the distribution of lobsters it may be stated that 
a few stray individuals have been occasionally recorded from 
the extreme northeastern corner of Virginia, but the Delaware 
Breakwater may more properly be regarded as the southern 
limit of their range. On the New Jersey coast they are some- 
what more abundant, and give rise toa limited fishery in the 
neighborhood of Atlantic City and Long Branch. Though 
formerly quite plentiful and extensively fished for in New York 
bay and Hell Gate, they are now nearty exterminated from that 
region, due to overfishing combined with the pollution of the 
