48 CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS. 



mitting the young to the mercy of the sea, while we have legalized 

 the destruction of the great source of the eggs themselves, — the 

 large producing adults. 



This fundamental error of destroying the adult lobster was first 

 clearly pointed out in 1903 by Dr. George W. Field,^ chairman 

 of the Commissioners on Fisheries and Game in Massachusetts, 

 and who in various reports since has ably advocated a sounder 

 policy, based both on science and common sense, as will appear 

 later in this paper. 



Our lobster fishery laws, which date in the main from 1873, are 

 in principle like those which prevail elsewhere, and taken as a 

 whole they illustrate the force of example and tradition, which 

 were established long before the biology of this animal was even 

 approximately understood. The past literature of this crustacean 

 bristles everywhere with, these false notions, which are more or 

 less directly and mainly responsible for the enactment and main- 

 tenance of the present laws and practices of this fishery. 



The legal length limits of 9 and IOI/2 inches, which sanction 

 the destruction of the big egg-producers, but for these supporting 

 causes, would probably never have been retained, for these causes 

 have led to a diversion of energy in various directions, such as 

 the enactment of closed seasons and the practice of hatching and 

 immediate liberation of the fry. 



A closed season for any animal, during which it is made illegal to 

 hunt or fish for it, can only be completely justified and placed upon 

 a scientific basis when it is made to correspond to the breeding sea- 

 son of the species as a whole, and when this season is limited to 

 a relatively small part of the year. Neither of these things is 

 possible in the lobster, since the question is complicated by the 

 fact that this animal spawns but once in two years, so that not 

 more than one-half of the adult females reproduce annually, and 

 these eggs when laid are carried about by the lobsters through 

 nearly an entire year. Closed seasons of this character are there- 

 fore not to be recommended, since they serve merely to restrict 

 the total amount of fishing done in the year, and do not touch the 

 root of the difliculty. 



The reasoning which has led to the establishment of the gauge 



1 Field, George W.: "A Report upon the Scientific Basis of the Lobster Industry, the 

 Apparent Causes of its Decline, and Suggestions for improving the Lobster Laws." Re- 

 port of the Commissioners on Fisheries and Game of Massachusetts for 1901. Boston: 

 1902. Also, " The Biological Basis of Legislation governing the Lobster Industry." 

 Science, N. S., vol. xv. New York, 1902. "The Lobster Fisheries and the Causes of 

 their Decline," Fortieth Annual Report of the Commissioners on Fisheries and Game of 

 Massachusetts. Boston, 1906. 



