54 CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS. 



Such a lobster must therefore have produced 13,000 eggs (the 

 average product at 10% inches) plus 23,000, or at least 36,000 in 

 all. We are therefore right in concluding that the maximum rate 

 of survival of 2 in 10,000, formerly given,^ was much too high, as 

 it was known to be at the time, and that the proportion of 2 to 

 30,000 is much nearer the truth. Another estimate, by Meek,^ 

 based upon the statistics of the fisheries of Northumberland, Eng., 

 gives a life rate of 1 in 38,000. 



If it is then true, as we are thoroughly convinced that it is, 

 that the normal rate of survival in the lobster is not greater than 

 2 in 30,000 or 1 in 15,000 (and it cannot be greater than 2 in 

 10,000), the fact is big for the lobster fishery, and the sooner it 

 is faced the better. It has a direct bearing upon our laws and 

 fishery operations. It enables us to truly evaluate the egg and 

 the egg lobster. It shows in a conclusive manner that the present 

 gauge laws are indefensible, because they rob the fishery of the 

 billions of eggs necessary to maintain it. It further shows that the 

 method of hatching the eggs of this animal and immediately liberat- 

 ing its young is ineffective, because of the meagre results which can 

 come from it. On the other hand, it speaks loudly in favor of 

 a law to protect the large egg producers, and of the newer plan of 

 rearing the young to the bottom-seeking stage, as the only means 

 by which pisciculture can hope to materially aid this fishery. 



The importance of the law of survival to the operations of the 

 fisheries, and especially in its bearing upon some of our present 

 illogical laws, is the only excuse for dwelling upon it at this length. 

 To illustrate further, — with respect to period of maturity and 

 value to the fishery, all lobsters in the sea may be divided into 

 three classes: (1) the young and adolescents, mainly from egg or 

 larva, to the 8-inch stage; (2) intermediate class of adolescents and 

 adults, 8 or 9 to 10% inches in length; and (3) large adults, mainly 

 above 10% inches long. The biological value of the individual 

 increases with every stage from egg to adult of largest size, and 

 therefore is greatest in class 3. The present laws sanction the 

 destruction of class 3, but class 1, the beginning of the series, 

 must, as we have seen, be mainly recruited from this class, or from 

 those animals which under present conditions are being wiped out. 

 In other words, our policy shifts the duty of maintaining the race 

 upon the small producers, which the law of survival plainly tells 

 us it is unable to bear. There is no way of getting over this grave 

 defect. 



'Meek, A.; "The Crab and Lobster Fisheries o£ Northumberland." Report for 1904. 

 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1904. 



