104 First Annual Report of the 



Careful experiments show that about 2 per cent, of the lob- 

 sters hatched at hatcheries reach maturity, while if the young fry 

 is held in captivity until it has reached its fourth stage, the stage 

 in which its shell hardens and it is able to take care of and protect 

 itself from its natural enemies, fully 60 per cent, of the hatch 

 will reach maturity and become of commercial value. Our laws 

 on this valuable species are embraced in one paragraph, section 

 205 of the Forest, Fish and Game Law, which prohibits their tak- 

 ing at a less size than nine inches in length. Lobsters reach ma- 

 turity, i. e., the reproductive age, when eight or nine inches long, 

 and it will therefore be seen that under this law we are practically 

 destroying our breeding stock. 



The question as to increasing the size or length at which lobsters 

 can be taken or of allowing the smaller lobsters to be caught, and 

 prohibiting the taking of the larger sizes, is a mooted one in the 

 different States, but the results achieved in the State of Maine and 

 in the Canadian Atlantic maritime provinces, would indicate that 

 the proper legislation would be to prohibit the taking of any lob- 

 ster less than ten inches long, of regulating the distance between 

 the slats in lobster-pots to a certain size, of prohibiting the catch- 

 ing of all berry lobsters, of establishing a close season, and of offer- 

 ing the fishermen a bounty upon all berry lobsters delivered at the 

 hatcheries. 



All lobster fishermen, the pots and the boats used by them 

 should be licensed, the license numbers marked on boats and floats 

 of lobster-pots, and required to make annual statistical statements 

 under oath. 



Net-fishing is prohibited in certain districts, and this covers 

 about all the attention which has been given to this valuable 

 industry. 



Those engaged in the fisheries of this State on the Great 

 Lakes and inland streams and on the Hudson river above New- 

 burgh are all required to take out licenses for their nets and the 

 boats used in the business, while under our present laws no fisher- 

 man of our marine waters, and no boat, excepting the vessels used 

 in the catching of menhaden, and nonresident fishermen, are 

 taxed. 



The shad, one of our most valuable food fishes, had, five or six 

 years ago, practically disappeared from our waters, but through 



