CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS. 49 



limit has been somewhat as follows: lobsters come to breeding age 

 when 9, 10 or IQi/^ inches long, and when they spawn they spawn 

 many thousands at a time, which is true. Therefore, by placing 

 the legal gauge at 9 or 10% inches we allow this animal to breed 

 at least once before it is sacrificed, which is also true in the main. 

 Ten-inch lobsters lay on an average 10,000 eggs; the lobster, being 

 a good mother to her unhatched progeny, and the best incubator 

 known, will bring most of these eggs to term, and will emit to the 

 sea her young by the tens of thousands. A\'hat more is needed to 

 maintain this fishery? The answer is. Vastly more. This race 

 needs eggs not by the tens of thousands merely, but by the tens 

 of billions, and it must have them or perish. jMoreover, it can 

 get them only or mainly through the big producers, the destruc- 

 tion of which the present gauge laws have legalized. If tlie lobster 

 is a good " incubator," the sea is a very poor nursery. We have put 

 a false value upon the egg. 



Before proceeding farther in this analysis, we must glance at 

 the most pertinent facts in the biology of the lobster. These facts 

 concern chiefly: (a) the period of maturity of adult lobsters; (6) 

 the number of eggs borne by the females, or the size of the broods; 

 (c) the frequency of spawning; (il) the treatment which these 

 eggs receive, or the habits of spawning lobsters; (e) the liabits of 

 the fry or larvas; and (/) possibly more important than all else, 

 the death rate or the law of survival in the young. 



The phrases " egg lobster," " berried lobster," or " lobster in 

 berry," or " lobster with external eggs," are all synonymous, and 

 always mean a female with her cargo of eggs, new or old, attached 

 to the swimming feet under the tail. 



(a) Lobsters do not mature at a uniform age or size, but females 

 produce their first broods when from 7 to 11 inches long, approxi- 

 mately, the difference between these limits representing a period 

 of from two to three years (age of female lobsters at these limits 

 about three and eight j'ears, according to Hadley). Very rarely 

 are eggs laid before the 8-inch stage is reached, and the majority 

 are mature at 10 or IOI/2 inches, when some have reared more 

 than one brood. Accordingly, by merely reducing the lOi/2-inch 

 gauge to 9 or 8 inches we rob the animal of the very meagre pro- 

 tection which it now enjoys. 



(&) The number of eggs produced increases with surprising 

 rapidity in proportion to the cube of the length or the total volume 

 of the body, from the very beginning of sexual maturity. The ap- 

 proximate number of eggs at 8 inches is 5,000 ; at 10 inches, 10,090 ; 



