PRODUCTS OF THE PRINCIPAL FISHERIES IN DETAIL. 



61 



net was sold fresh except 353,000 pounds, valued at 

 $19,000, which were salted. 



The bulk of the value of the lake-trout catch, 76 

 per cent, represents the value of the catch made with 

 gill nets; 14 per cent, that of the catch with lines; 10 

 per cent, that of the catch with pound and trap nets ; 

 and a small amount, that of the catch with fyke and 

 hoop nets and seines. The following tabular state- 

 ment gives the statistics of the catch, by apparatus of 

 capture : 



1 Less than 1 per cent. 



Lobster (Homarus americanus) . — The lobster, a deca- 

 pod crustacean of great economic importance, is found 

 on the Atlantic coast from Delaware to Labrador. 

 It averages about 11 inches in length and about 2 

 pounds in weight, but the size varies with localities 

 and seasons. It is caught in pots and traps especially 

 constructed for the purpose. 



The value of the lobster product in 1908, $1,931,000, 

 placed it first among all crustaceans, second only to 

 the oyster among marine invertebrates, and fifth 

 among the entire fishery products of the United States. 

 The catch, by states, is given in the following tabular 

 statement. It will be noted that the order of rank 

 according to value follows more or less closely the 

 geographical order from north to south. 



The lobster product was essentially a New England 

 product, the catch of the Middle Atlantic states form- 

 ing less than 4 per cent of the total. The Maine lob- 



ster catch represented nearly 40 per cent of the value 

 of all fishery products of that state. 



In the following comparative statement for the 

 New England states and the Middle Atlantic states, 

 respectively, statistics are given of the quantity and 

 value of the catch for those years covered by previous 

 canvasses. The largest product shown for any period 

 is that of over thirty million pounds reported in 1889- 

 1891, the greater part of which came from the New 

 England states. By comparing the returns from the 

 New England states for 1880 with those for 1908 a 

 decrease of 26 per cent in the quantity of the catch 

 and an increase of 292 per cent in its value are shown. 



To a certain extent the growth of the lobster fishery 

 under the protection of restrictive laws is directly 

 connected with the history of the lobster-canning 

 industry of Maine, first started in 1842. At first 

 the lobsters used for canning varied in weight 

 from 3 to 10 pounds, but gradually, owing to the high 

 price obtainable for fresh lobsters, the weight fell until 

 lobsters weighing as low as three-fourths of a pound 

 were employed. As a result of the very perceptible 

 diminution in the annual product caused by this 

 destruction of the young, canneries were in 1879 pro- 

 hibited from packing lobsters except from April 1 to 

 August 1, while in 1883 it was made illegal to can 

 lobsters less than 9 inches in length. The canning 

 season was subsequently shortened by law untU in 

 1891 it was limited to the weeks between April 20 and 

 June 1 . The last blow to the canning business, which 

 had been rapidly declining, was given in 1895, when 

 the minimum length for canning was fixed at 10£ 

 inches. Since this legislation was passed the industry 

 has disappeared from Maine. As early as 1884 every 

 state interested had passed laws to regulate and pro- 

 tect the lobster fishery. At about the same time 

 artificial propagation was begun by the United States 

 Fish Commission in an endeavor to check the dimi- 

 nution and possibly increase the supply; but so far 

 these efforts have met with little success. In no state 

 can lobsters shorter than 9 inches now be taken, 

 while in all the states the destruction of the female 



