SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 245 



NOTE ON THE WEST COAST LOBSTER 

 FISHERIES. 



By J. Travis Jenkins, D.Sc, Ph.D. 

 Superintendent of Sea Fisheries. 



In the Annual Report of Proceedings under Acts 

 relating to Sea Fisheries for the year 1910, issued by the 

 Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in 1912, there is a 

 memorandum on the size, sex and condition of Lobsters, 

 which, as it contains deductions based on erroneous 

 statistics, needs some correction. 



The Memorandum in question has, so far as the 

 Northumberland district is concerned, been somewhat 

 severely criticised by Professor Meek. The Board 

 maintain that it is better to raise the minimum size limit 

 to nine inches than to protect the berried female. Prof. 

 Meek points out the fallacy in the Board's reasoning.* 

 As a matter of fact, in the Lancashire and Western 

 District the minimum size limit is nine inches and the 

 berried lobster is protected, so the arguments on either 

 side do not concern us much. 



The West Coast of England and Wales is admittedly 

 not an important lobster fishing centre. On this coast 

 fishing for lobsters and crabs is carried on in open boats, 

 and the prevailing westerly and south-westerly winds put 

 a stop to fishing in the winter months. Not only is it 

 frequently unsafe to venture out to sea in open boats for 

 days or even weeks at a time, but the lobster " pots " are 

 frequently washed up on shore or destroyed in other ways 

 by strong winds and gales. 



* Report by Professor Meek on the Memorandum issued by the 

 Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, on tlic size, sex and condition of 

 Lobsters. Printed by order of the Northumberland Fisheries 

 Committee, 16th April, 1912. 



