654 



SCIENCE. 



IN.S. Vol. XXIII. No. 591. 



eggs at any given time. This at once re- 

 duces the protection designed by such a law 

 by one half, and the other half shrinks al- 

 most to the vanishing point, since between 

 the climax of the period of hatching (June 

 15) and that of the spawning period 

 (August 1) there is an interval of about 

 six weeks when the majority of all adult 

 females are without eggs, whether old or 

 new, and therefore derive no benefit from 

 such laws. Nor is it possible to ignore the 

 fact that it is an easy matter for any fisher- 

 man to strip off the eggs from the female, 

 and place her among his 'counters.' 



In dealing with all such questions every 

 one should avoid the common error of as- 

 suming that because any animal produces 

 a large number of eggs, there must be a 

 large number of adults reared from those 

 eggs. This form of egregious logic is alto- 

 gether too common among fish culturists 

 in both England and America. On the 

 contrary, the teachings of biology compel 

 us to draw a very different conclusion. As 

 I have elsewhere pointed out, the essential 

 question — what is the ratio between the 

 number of eggs hatched and the number 

 of young reared, is strangely neglected. 



An egg represents a chance of indi- 

 vidual survival, and where the chance of 

 survival is slight, the number of chances is 

 increased. Vast numbers of eggs invari- 

 ably mean certain destruction to all but a 

 remnant of the host. I have also shown 

 that a survival of two lobsters in every 

 10,000 hatched would be a large allowance, 

 two in twenty or thirty thousand being, 

 without doubt, nearer the truth. This 

 further fortifies the conclusion that the vast 

 numbers of eggs required to recuperate 

 the first class can not be expected from 

 the second class, but only from a perma- 

 nently protected body of adults in full re- 

 productive vigor. When the adults are 

 permanently protected they form a grow- 

 ing class, since they will constantly receive 



as recruits all those animals which success- 

 fully run the gauntlet beyond the pre- 

 scribed limit. 



Those who object to a change of policy 

 and to the adoption of method 2 given 

 above might affirm that if class 3 has been 

 practically exterminated, and if we proceed 

 to wipe out class 2, soon there will be no 

 more lobsters. This may be a serious ob- 

 jection, but on general principles we are 

 assured that the change ought to be made, 

 and made generally wherever the lobster ia 

 trapped; the sooner it is done, the better. 

 No doubt if the legal length of the lobster 

 were reduced from ten and one half inches 

 to nine inches, the market supply would be 

 increased for a number of years, and this 

 might be followed by a stringency, but 

 there would be a growing protected class 

 at work all the time, and this would be 

 bound to tell favorably in the end. 



Many fishermen, accustomed for a life- 

 time to look upon the larger lobsters as 

 their legitimate prey, would doubtless rebel 

 against what might seem to them as op- 

 posed both to nature and to their own 

 interests, but this would settle itself in 

 course of time. Certain changes would be 

 necessary in the construction of traps — in 

 limiting the size of the funnel or the dis- 

 tance between the slats— but these would 

 not entail serious expense. 



To apply the principle of protecting the 

 adult I should favor fixing the limits of 

 length between which it would be legal to 

 sell and destroy lobsters at eight to ten 

 inches, permanently protecting all above 

 and below these sizes. It might be an 

 easier step from present conditions to set 

 these limits between the nine- and ten-and- 

 one-half-inch stages, which I am informed 

 by Dr. Field is the plan favored by the 

 department of fisheries and game in Massa- 

 chusetts. This is not a vital matter so 

 long as the principle of protecting the 

 adult is maintained, and this is best done 



