614 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 381. 



and lO^-inch laws are the ones which have 

 met widest favor. They are identical in 

 inconvenience of application and in diffi- 

 culty of enforcement. 



Neither the 9-ineh law in New York, the 

 9-inch and ' female lobster mtli spawn at- 

 tached ' in Connecticut, 9-ineh and a closed 

 season in Rhode Island, lO^-inch in Mas- 

 sachusetts, 10-J-inch and ' female lobsters 

 while carrying their spawn or hatching 

 their young' in New Hampshire, 10^-ineh 

 since 1897 in Maine, nor the lO^-inch and 

 a closed season from June 30 to January 

 14 in the Maritime Provinces, has pre- 

 vented the continued rapid decline in (1) 

 the number of lobsters caught, (2) the 

 average size of the lobsters caught, (3) 

 the average number of egg-bearing females 

 reported, (4) the number of persons who 

 can depend upon the fisheries for support, 

 or (5) has checked the rapid rise in the 

 price of lobster meat. 



Further, these laws have been found by 

 experience to be difficult of application and 

 expensive in enforcement and alike dis- 

 agreeable to officer and offender. 



The sole apparent merit of this law 

 seems to be that it does prevent the catch- 

 ing of some lobsters; just how many is 

 dependent upon the honor of the fishermen 

 and the means of enforcing the law. Its 

 greatest defect, and from a scientific point 

 of view an ii'reparable one, consists in the 

 fact that it affords no protection to those 

 lobsters which most need protection— the 

 mature breeding individuals— but puts a 

 premium on their capture through tacitly 

 specifying that only adults above the 

 breeding age shall be killed. What would 

 be the effect upon our supply of poultry 

 and eggs if a law should be made ' protect- 

 ing' poultry under one year, or under a 

 certain size or weight? It absolutely ig- 

 nores the biological laAvs which man has 

 found by experience to be of the utmost 



importance wherever it has become neces- 

 sary to increase the natural food- supply to 

 meet the increasing population — the pro- 

 tection of the adult animal in order to 

 secure a supply of young of that species. 



4. The ProhihUion of the Killing of Egg- 

 hearing Lobsters.— To prohibit the Idlling 

 of any egg-bearing lobsters is good legisla- 

 tion so far as it goes, but it is open to the 

 objection that it pushes into prominence 

 the temptation to comb off the eggs, and 

 thus make the lobster a marketable one. It 

 has practical difficulties of enforcement. 



5. The Prohibition of the Killing of any 

 Female Lobsters.— The prohibition of the 

 killing of any female lobster would promise 

 more effectiveness were it not for the fact 

 that it involves catching, and a subsequent 

 sorting and liberation. 



6. TJie Removal of all Bestridions as to 

 Catclting. —The proposal to remove all re- 

 strictions as to catching lobsters must inevi- 

 tably lead to the destruction of the indus- 

 try, unless a sufficient artificial supply can 

 be maintained to meet the demand, and 

 thus far this seems impracticable. Cer- 

 tainly satisfactory results haA'^e not been 

 reached in the case of the lobster, though 

 further investigation and examination 

 must yield far-reaching results. 



7. The Protection of All Adult Lobsters 

 Above the Breeding Age, etc.— The method 

 of protecting all the adults, and catching 

 only a portion of the young, promises very 

 satisfactory results in the case of the lob- 

 ster, for the reasons : 



1. That the ratio of the biological, i. e., 

 reproductive, value increases very rapidly 

 after the size of nine to ten inches has been 

 reached, as shown by Professor Herrick's 

 table. 



2. The number of enemies diminishes 

 very rapidly as the lobster increases in 

 size. 



