382 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



of the English or house sparrow, will it help greatly to break its eggs and destroy its 

 young ones, though so relatively few and with a far higher life rate than in the crustacean ? 

 Must we not eventually kill the producers of the eggs if we would be rid of the pest? 

 This is the nature of the treatment which the lobster has received. If we would preserve 

 this fishery, we must reverse our laws, as Doctor Field has ably pointed out, and follow 

 the principles and practice of breeders of domestic animals everywhere — use the 

 smaller and better animals for food, and keep the older, and in this case by far the most 

 valuable, for propagation. 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 



In applying the principles already discussed the following suggestions are offered : 



1. Adopt a double gauge or length limit, placing in a perpetual close season or 

 protected class all below and all above these limits. Place the legal bar so as to embrace 

 the average period of sexual maturity, and thus to include what we have called the 

 intermediate class of adolescents, or smaller adults. These limits should be approxi- 

 mately 9 inches and 1 1 inches, inclusive, thus legalizing the destruction of lobsters from 

 9 to 1 1 inches long only when measured alive. In this way we protect the young as 

 well as the larger adults, upon which we depend for a continuous supply of eggs. The 

 precise terms of these limits are not so vital, provided we preserve the principle of 

 protecting the larger adults. 



2. Protect the "berried" lobster on principle, and pay a bounty for it, as is now 

 done, whether the law is evaded or not, and use. its eggs for constructive work, or for 

 experimental purposes with such work in view. 



3. Abolish the closed season if it still exists; let the fishing extend throughout the 

 year. 



4. Wherever possible, adopt the plan of rearing the young to the bottom-seeking 

 stage before liberation, or cooperate with the United States Bureau of Fisheries or with 

 sister states to this end. 



5. License every lobster fisherman, and adopt a standard trap or pot which shall 

 work automatically, so far as possible, in favor of the double gauge, the entrance rings 

 being of such a diameter as to exclude all lobsters above the gauge, and the slats of the 

 trap of such a distance apart as to permit the undersized animals to escape. 



Many objections can be raised, but this plan is defensible on scientific grounds, 

 while the older methods are not. The best thing which can be said of it is that it would 

 eventually give us more eggs, and in an ever-increasing quantity — the greatest need 

 of this fishery, both now and in the future. Under present conditions, the supply of 

 eggs is yearly diminishing and at a tremendous rate. 



The most striking objection to the proposed changes would be that if class 3, that 

 of the big producers, has been nearly exterminated, and we proceed to wipe out class 2, 

 the smaller adults, there will soon be no more lobsters ; but this is not valid. No doubt 

 if this change were made, the supply of smaller lobsters would be temporarily increased 

 where the lo^-inch gauge law still prevails, as was the case in Massachusetts in 1907 



