FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 1 69 



Third. — Your committee further recommends the general adoption of the law 

 relating to lobster meat now enacted in the statutes of Maine. [The Maine 

 law allows the sale of lobster meat in the shell only, so that lobsters shorter 

 than the legal limit, known in the trade as "chicken" lobster, may be more 

 readily detected.] 



Dr. George W. Field advanced a theory regarding the protection of lobsters 

 which deserves careful consideration upon the part of those who are making a study 

 of this interesting subject. He maintains that it is the egg-bearing, or "berry,"' 

 lobster, rather than the immature lobster, that needs protection, on the same 

 principle upon which the laying, or mother, fowl is preserved while the broilers 

 are sent to market. He proposes to create a perpetual close season for the adult 

 breeding lobster by putting it out of the power of fishermen to capture them. 

 To secure this condition he suggests legislation limiting the size of the orifice or 

 ring at the entrance to the lobster trap, so that it will be impossible for a lobster 

 more than eleven inches in length to enter. As all lobsters above this size will 

 be excluded, they will consequently never come into the hands of the fisherman, 

 and therefore there will be no temptation for him to surreptitiously market them. 

 He thinks that lobsters betweer eight and eleven inches are of suitable size for 

 market, and are superior to the ^rger ones for the table. 



It was suggested by your Superintendent that lobsters too small for the market 

 might be allowed to escape from the traps by making the space between the side- 

 bars or slats sufficiently wide to enable them to pass out. Under such a plan fewer 

 small lobsters would be brought to the surface when the traps are raised, while 

 absolutely none above eleven inches in length would be taken. 



The minutes of the convention, it is expected, will soon be in print and ready 

 for distribution, when copies will be forwarded to the New York Commission. 



During the season multitudes of young lobsters have made their appearance 

 upon out coast, notably in the New York Lower Bay and in Jamaica Bay. This 

 gives encouragement for an increased market supply in the near future. 



statistics of tl)e Industry. 



Though without an appropriation for this purpose, an effort has been made by 

 your Superintendent to gather statistics of the shellfish industry. The results 

 presented in this report are of very great interest, and, while not as complete as 

 they may be in the future, bear out the estimate made two years ago by this 

 Department — that New York annually transacts a business in shellfish amounting 

 to about $7,000,000 



