172 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



same estimated value, namely, $3,422,927. Notwithstanding the increased cost to the 

 consumer, even in Canada the total value of the fishery has begun to fall, the product 

 for 1906 being less by half a million dollars than that of 1905. 



The lobster grounds of the Atlantic coast were the finest the world has ever pro- 

 duced. In Canada alone 100,000,000 lobsters have been captured in a single year. If 

 properly dealt with, it would seem as if this vast natural preserve should have yielded 

 lobsters in abundance and in fair size for generations and even centuries to come. But 

 instead, lean and still leaner years soon followed those of plenty, first in the older and 

 more accessible regions of the fishery, until the decline, which has been watched for 

 more than three decades, has extended to practically every part of this vast area. 



The lobster fisheries of the old world, and especially the more important industries 

 of Norway and Great Britain, when they came to be pursued with the system and energy 

 characteristic of modem conditions, have experienced a similar decUne, and upon the 

 whole attempts have been made to meet it in a similar way and with the same result. 

 The treatment has been of the symptomatic kind, and the real cause of the difficulty has 

 not been reached. Sweden, indeed, is said to have felt the need of protective measures 

 two hundred years ago, and to have framed the first laws regulating her lobster fishery 

 in 1686. In 1865 the export of lobsters from Norway, to England chiefly, reached 

 nearly 2,000,000 in numbers. Already as early as 1838 protective measures were being 

 vigorously discussed, and it was proposed to establish a gauge limit of 8 inches; but this 

 was rejected, and a close season (July 15 to September 30, and later extended from July 

 to November) adopted instead. From 1883 to 1887 about 1,000,000 lobsters were 

 captured on the Norwegian coast yearly, having a value of 640,000 francs ($128,000), 

 a large part of the product being consumed in the interior and the rest exported alive. 

 While this small fishery has maintained itself better than most others, it has suffered 

 still greater reduction in recent years. 



The product and value of the lobster fisheries of Norway from 1 815 to 1907 are given 

 by Boeck (24), and Appell6f (30^), the latter from official returns. According to these 

 data the best single year in its history was 1865, with a catch of 1,956,276 lobsters, and 

 the best periods from 1821 to 1830, with numbers ranging from 784,511 (1823) to 

 1,609,051 (1825), and i860 to 1886, with numbers varying from 987,370 (1877) to the 

 greatest record as given above. Since 1886 the armual catch has not touched the million 

 mark, and the numbers have varied from 549,446 (1892) to 992,761 (1907). It is further 

 interesting to note the steady rise in value of the produce of this fishery. Thus the catch 

 of 1883, namely, 1,255,790 lobsters, though greater than that of 1907 by 263,039, had 

 only about one-half its value, or 423,083 crowns ($114,232), as compared with 835,002 

 crowns ($2 2 5 ,450) . Expressed in another way the average price of lobsters had increased 

 from 28.50 crowns per 100 in 1878 to 92.41 crowns in 1905, or over 300 per cent. 



Herbst {136) writing about 1790, thus speaks of the importance of the lobster fishery 

 Norway at that time: 



In tie Stavanger district this trade brings every year more than 10,000 Reichsthaler into the country. 

 Yet many maintain that it is detrimental to Norway, since owing to the extensive fishing of lobsters, other 

 fish have left the Norwegian coast . . The inhabitants of Zirkson, Holland, were the first to under- 



