62 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



DESTRUCTION OF THE EGG-LOBSTER AND ITS SPAWN. 



The berried lobster has many enemies, of which man is the chief, but if we except 

 the latter, she seems to avoid them with remarkable skill. At least it is true that 

 during the long period in which the ova are carried the losses are relatively slight. 

 You detect but rarely a bad egg in the whole lot, and when, after ten months, the 

 mother's fostering care is about to end, one is surprised to see how healthy every 

 egg appears and how few seem to have been torn off. I have found that lobsters will 

 scratch off and devour their own eggs when confined in aquaria; and we often see the 

 spider crab (Libinia canaliculata) industriously picking off its eggs, as if for its own 

 amusement, when it seems to have no lack of other food. The eel has a decided 

 partiality for the eggs of the lobster, but the cautious way in which she keeps her 

 tail folded up when crawling over the bottom, and the lightning like speed with which 

 she can dart about when disturbed, must often circumvent her most wily adversary. 

 On July 5, 1890, 1 placed three egg lobsters, from which I wished to obtain embryos in 

 progressive stages of development, in a small floating car. One of these was a large 

 perfect female, a second was a small perfect female, and a third was disabled by the 

 loss of its claws. The next morning I found that the smaller female lobster had been 

 killed and eaten. The large one had cut its body in two, at the junction of the " back" 

 and ''tail," and eels had eaten out the flesh and picked off' nearly every egg, only two 

 or three being left. I afterwards found that lobsters kept in a similar way were liable 

 to lose their eggs while still active, and the aggressor was undoubtedly the eel. 



Fishermen have maintained (28, p. 11) that egg-lobsters, if put together, devour 

 each other's eggs, but this is not true. At least I am certain that this never occurs 

 unless the lobster is first killed by its companions. 



At Small Point, Maine, "berry" lobsters used to be considered the best kind of 

 bait for certain fish. The "tail" of the lobster was cut oft", a part of the upper shell 

 removed, and the eggs left clinging to the under side. This practice was probably not 

 confined to a single locality. 



The pernicious destruction of the egg or spawndobsters is wisely prohibited in 

 most of the States, and it is to be regretted that an attempt to enforce such a law has 

 not been made in the Maritime Provinces and in Europe. This should certainly be 

 done even if the law is often evaded, owing to the ease with which the eggs can be 

 scraped off with a mitten or brush. 



Ignorance of the fact that the lobster carries her eggs for a long period has been 

 an element of confusion in the establishment of close seasons. Thus in Connecticut 

 the law of 1878 forbade the destruction of females with spawn from July 1 to July 15. 

 In Massachusetts, in 1880, the sale of females with eggs was prohibited during July. 

 In 1883 the Maine legislature made a close time for egg-bearing females from April f to 

 August 1; this was changed in 1885 to from October 1 to August 35. In both Maine 

 and Massachusetts it is now, as it should be, illegal to take spawn-lobsters at any time. 



The destruction of the spawn of lobsters is a terrible waste of life, and this is of 

 itself sufficient reason for the adoption of any measure which may tend to lessen the 

 evil. In certain parts of England lobsters in berry have been considered as in the 

 very best condition for eating, and the eggs are highly prized for salad. On this 

 account and because it was thought too great a hardship to compel the fishermen to 

 throw back the "berried hens," the commissioners were not inclined to recommend 



