of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



137 



satisfied that if such a law were made it would be impossible to enforce 

 it. There is another matter* which we believe requires attention. The 

 fishermen who fish in the autumn months are in the habit of destroying 

 large numbers of 'soft' or 'light' crabs. These crabs, which have 

 recently cast their shells, are worthless as food. We propose that it 

 should be illegal to expose these crabs for sale. We should have been 

 very glad to have been able to recommend that they should not be taken, 

 and we exeedingly regret that we cannot do so, for two reasons. First, 

 because, as we have already stated, there is no available machinery for 

 enforcing a law of this nature on the coast, and we are unable to see how 

 any efficient machinery for the purpose can be provided except at very 

 great cost ; and second, because these crabs are used as bait. The only 

 practicable remedy we believe to consist in the institution of local close 

 seasons applicable to those places where, and times when, soft or light 

 crabs are wantonly destroyed." The difficulty of enforcing such a regula- 

 tion is probably not so great now as it was when the Commission made 

 its report. The use of crabs for bait may be considered from two points 

 of view, (1) the efficiency of the flesh of the crab as a bait for fish, (2) 

 what saving in the fisherman's expenditure results from the use of the 

 crabs in this manner. It is generally considered by the fishermen that 

 the crab is a more attractive bait than the mussel. But on this point 

 experimental evidence is wanting. Certain data bearing upon the 

 expenditure which is avoided by using crabs for bait have, in the case 

 of Dunbar, been obtained. A large soft crab affords not more than 

 four baits. To bait 400 hooks requires 100 crabs. The cost of mussels as 

 bait for 400 hooks does not exceed ninepence, while 100 hard large crabs, 

 if taken at the moderate value of Is. per dozen, bring 8s. 4d. A potential 

 return of 8s. 4d. after four months, the period required for the soft 

 crab to become hard, is then sacrificed for a quantity of mussels of the 

 value of ninepence. These crabs, if returned to the sea, would after 

 four or five months have their value increased on recapture tenfold. 

 In order that the fishermen may have returned to them the expenditure 

 on mussels entailed by the protection of the soft crabs, it is necessary 

 that only ten crabs out of the 100 be recaptured. As to what propor- 

 tion might be expected to be recaught, some data are afforded by the 

 labelling experiments. Of the soft crabs which were marked and then 

 set free, 11 per cent, were recovered, and as it is no doubt the case 

 that a proportion of these crabs succumbed in consequence of their 

 necessary exposure to the air for longer or shorter intervals, the per- 

 centage of the survivors which were retaken is probably even greater 

 than ll.f It may then with a considerable amount of certainty be 

 maintained that 10 per cent, at least of the soft crabs returned to the 

 sea immediately on being taken from the creels would be recaptured in 

 the hard condition. In this way the fishermen would suffer no loss. 

 An average estimate of the number of crabs used for bait by 

 each boat during autumn and part of the winter is 100 crabs 

 per day. 100 crabs are looked upon as a reasonable number 

 per boat; some boats take more. Now, soft crabs are got dur- 

 ing September, October, November, and December — four months ; 

 it is at once apparent that the destruction which may ensue through 

 this practice is enormous. Statistics of the extent to which the crab is 

 used for bait do not exist, but from the statistics of the catch of one 

 boat during the last four months of 1899 (Table XII.) it is seen that, with 

 the exception of eight days at the end of December, more than 100 soft 

 crabs were obtained each day. For the 52 days on which the fishing 

 was prosecuted, it was, then, permitted by custom to the one boat to 

 *p. xiii. 



Of some lots a very much higher percentage was recovered. Thus, in six cases, the 

 Ko lowing were the percentages recaptured, viz., 20, 20, 22, 25, 25, and 31. 



