THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 207 
i 
pay for the handling are consumed, and the ready market thus 
afforded has tempted the fishermen to save every specimen that 
enters their traps. It is unquestionably this extensive destruc- 
tion of the young that has hastened the decrease; but that the 
decrease is not solely due to the presence of canneries is evi- 
denced by the statements we have already made regarding other 
sections of the coast. 
In the Saco district, allhough there are no canneries located 
nearer than Portland, a smack trade between the fishing grounds 
and the canneries to the eastward has recently been started, and 
several witnesses have testified to a marked falling off in the 
proportionate catch since it began. The average catch per man 
is now about one-third what it was twenty years ago, and while, 
in 1876, a barrel of lobsters averaged 65 by count, an average of 
80 lobsters is now required to fill a barrel. 
On the New Hampshire coast the decrease for twenty years is 
stated to have been from 50 to 75 per cent. 
From Rhode Island and Connecticut we have complaints re- 
garding a decrease in abundance and size of lobsters, similar to 
those already noted from the more northern States; but the 
statements we have given constitute but a small proportion of 
the evidence that we have obtained. 
That this evidence is unimpeachable as to a general and lasting 
decrease, we would not now affirm, but to our minds it has 
been conclusive. To press a definite and unfavorable opinion, 
however, regarding so extensive and valuable a fishery, after the 
meager returns of a single investigation extending through only 
one or two years, would scarcely be justifiable, but it has seemed 
to us that public attention should be now attracted to the sub- 
ject, as it appears in the light of the tenth census. 
The fishery has had sucha rapid growth, and the demands 
upon it have so exceeded its capacity, that the problem of weigh- 
ing evidence has been somewhat difficult. The total catch of 
lobsters has increased from year to year, but so has the number 
of fishermen, and the number of traps used, even in greater pro- 
portion; and the grounds have been enlarged until they now 
cover an exceedingly broad area, and extend into deeper water 
than was ever dreamed of formerly in connection with this fish- 
