376 BULIyETiN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



Since the sexes are about equal numerically, to maintain the species at an equi- 

 hbrium it is only necessary for each pair of adults, or for each adult female to leave two 

 children which attain adult age, whatever the actual length of life in either generation. 

 If the adult progeny exceeds two, the race will increase; if less than two, it will diminish. 

 Since under present conditions the race of this animal is falling off, the actual rate of 

 survival for the individual having remained the same, the total number of survivals 

 only has changed. In other words, there is at present a deficiency of eggs. 



What is the average number of eggs for the entire life of this animal? We know 

 the minimal and maximal limits of egg production in individuals (roughly, 3,000 and 

 100,000); we know the average number of eggs borne at the average age of maturity 

 (at the lo-inch size, 10,000 eggs); but, as Allen (j) in discussing this question points 

 out, we do not know the number of female lobsters destroyed at different ages. Many 

 after laying their first eggs are killed before any young are allowed to hatch, and the 

 number which survive to produce successive broods is a constantly diminishing one; 

 but this is made good in part by the rapid increase in the number of eggs. 



The average number of eggs borne by all the berried lobsters captured should give 

 us an indication of the average number of eggs borne by all female lobsters during life — 

 the number sought. In 4,645 egg lobsters from the Woods Hole region, Massachusetts, 

 the average number of eggs was 32,000, which would correspond to a 13 or i^H inch 

 lobster which had produced three or more broods. Allen found the number of eggs 

 borne by 96,098 lobsters caught in Newfoundland to be 2,247,908,000, which would give 

 an average of 23,000 to each female. This number corresponds to an animal 12 or 12% 

 inches long, which, as he remarks, from the known average age at which female lobsters 

 mature (io-io>^ inches) , would be carrying at least a second brood. Such a lobster 

 must therefore have produced 13,000 eggs (the average product at io}4 inches) plus 

 23,000, or at least 36,000 in all. We are therefore right in concluding that the maximum 

 rate of survival of 2 in 10,000, formerly given, was much too high, as it was known to be 

 at the time, and that the proportion of 2 to 30,000 is much nearer the truth. Another 

 estimate, by Meek (200), based upon the statistics of the fisheries of Northumberland, 

 England, gives a life rate of i in 38,000. 



If, then, it is true, as we are thoroughly convinced it is, that the normal rate of 

 survival in the lobster is not greater than 2 in 30,000 or i in 15,000 (and it can not be 

 greater than 2 in 10,000), the fact is big for the lobster fishery, and the sooner it is faced 

 the better. It has a direct bearing upon our laws and fishery operations. It enables 

 us to evaluate the egg and the egg lobster truly. It shows in a conclusive manner that 

 the present gauge laws are indefensible, because they rob the fishery of the billions of 

 eggs necessary to maintain it. It further shows that the method of hatching the eggs 

 of this animal and immediately liberating its young is ineffective, because of the meager 

 results which can come from it. On the other hand, it speaks loudly in favor of a law 

 to protect the large egg producers, and of the newer plan of rearing the young to the 

 bottom-seeking stage, as the only means by which pisciculture can hope to aid this 

 fishery materially. 



