PUBLIC FISHERIES FOR SHELLFISH 199 



and to 9 in. in the case of the lobster. In some localities the removal 

 of the berried lobster is also prohibited. The extension of statutory 

 protection to the berried lobster is a reform which is long overdue. 

 In England and Wales the total quantity of lobsters lajided showed 

 a dechne in the five-year period, 1905-09, as compared with 1900-04 

 of no less than 183,629 or 6-6 per cent. The detailed statistics for 

 each of the fishery districts for this period are not available, but in the 

 six districts in which the berried lobster is protected the total number 

 of lobsters landed increased from 69,496 in 1907 to 102,865 in 1910. 



This question of the protection of the berried lobster was first 

 raised by the Northumberland Local Fisheries Committee at the 

 first annual meeting of representatives of authorities under the 

 Sea Fisheries Regulation Act of 1888 held at London in 1891. It 

 has also been raised by one or other of the local committees at 

 subsequent meetings in the Conferences from 1892 to 1898 inclusive. 

 In 1905 the Northumberland Committee returned to the subject 

 and at every Conference since (except in 1913) they have urged on 

 the Central Department the necessity of providing further protection 

 for the berried lobster. The same question will probably come up 

 for consideration after the war. For years the Central Department 

 refused to allow resolutions to be proposed at these Conferences, 

 but the Marquess of Lincolnshire (then Lord Carrington, and Presi- 

 dent of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries) permitted it in 1907. 

 That year the Conference resolved unanimously that the berried 

 lobster should be protected the whole year round. The next year 

 it was proposed that " Legislation is necessary to make it a statutory 

 offence to have in possession, to land, and sell the berried lobster 

 during the whole year." The resolution was carried by thirty-five 

 votes to four. At the same Conference the following resolution was 

 carried unanimously, " That the taking, the sale and the possession 

 of the berry of the lobster be illegal." 



After twenty-three years' consideration the Central Department 

 drafted a Lobster Bill. This measure provides for an increase of 

 the minimum size for lobsters of half an inch. No provision is made 

 for the protection of the berried lobster, but four other clauses deal 

 with proposals for future legislation by Orders in Council and for 

 a new standard of measurement of lobsters. 



Apparently the Central Department object to the statutory 

 protection of the berried lobster on the ground that " stripping," 

 i.e. the artificial removal of the ova, would be practised by the 

 fishermen on such a scale as to render the enactment of no effect, 

 and in support of their attitude they produce evidence of this kind.^ 



' Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, Annual Report of Proceedings under Acts 

 relating to Sea Fisheries for igio, P. LXXVII. Addendum, " Memorandum on the 

 Size, Sex and Condition of Lobsters." 



