xxxvi 
Eighth Annual Report of the 
The import- 
ance of this 
Fishery in 
Newfound- 
land. 
Decline of 
Lohsters in 
Newfound- 
land. 
Decline in 
Scotland. 
Decline in 
Canada. 
How depletion 
of a. ground is 
produced. 
Mode of 
hatching 
The work of 
the Fishery 
Board. 
* he gets under the rosks, and when he is old enough a lobster is 
1 not an easy thing to tackle.' 
The importance of this fishery in Newfoundland is sufficiently 
indicated by the fact that in Placentia Bay alone there are forty 
factories in operation, representing a capital of about 100,000 
dollars, and giving employment to 1200 men and women. The 
catch of lobsters amounts to 5,000,000 annually, equal to 180,000 
dollars when canned. The total value of the lobsters exported in 
1888 from Newfoundland was 385,077 dollars. The establishment 
of lobster hatcheries has been suggested by fe fact that at these 
factories large supplies of eggs, now subject to destruction, would 
be easily obtained, whereas at present the industry is prosecuted 
in such a reckless way as will probably end in its extermination. 
There is no close season to protect lobsters when spawning and 
shelling; factories can be erected anywhere without restriction, and 
independent of all public regulation. No fishery ground, say the 
Commissioners, can stand such destructive draughts for any length 
of time, if nothing is done for their replenishment, and the result 
is seen in the steady diminution of the stock of fish. It appears 
in fact that the decrease is far more possible with this species than 
with the true fishes, from the habits of the lobster. Lobsters, says 
Mr Nielsen, are of a voracious nature, and pass a great part'of their 
time in shallow water and within limited bounds. For these 
reasons they are more easily captured than the other denizens of 
the ocean, and in all countries vigorous efforts have had to be made 
to preserve this fishery from ruin. These facts correspond with 
what has occurred in Scotland, where lobsters have been gradually 
declining both in numbers, and especially in size; in some places 
the fishermen have been forced to abandon this fishery altogether. 
A similar decline has been found in Canada, where protective 
measures of a stringent character have failed to arrest it, or restore 
it to its former condition. Although the price has recently 
advanced 25 per cent., the value of the Canadian lobster fishery 
in 1888 was only 1,483,388 dollars, as compared with 2,638,394 in 
1886, and 2,613,731 in 1885. Prince Edward's Island has also to 
lament a similar diminution, particularly in the size of the lobsters. 
In 1880, three and a half to four lobsters filled a 1 lb. can ; in 1888 
fully seven lobsters were needed to make up this quantity. Thd 
lobster being a local fish, in the strictest sense of the term, never 
migrates far from its deep-water haunt, but comes in annually to 
pretty nearly the same place on the shore. 
Hence by over-fishing, or by taking immature fish that have 
never spawned, any given locality may be speedily depleted and 
ruined as a lobster ground. The keeping up of the stock by 
ratificial breeding and stringent protective measures is, in the 
opinion of the Commissioners, of paramount importance, if the 
lubster fishery is to be saved from destruction. With this view Mr 
Nielsen has constructed floating hatching boxes, which, he says, if 
properly managed, will hatch out lobsters when the eggs have once 
reached a due stage of ripeness. 
The Fishery Board for Scotland have also had constructed a 
similar apparatus, which has been used at Dunbar, where some 
forty or fifty years ago the lobster fishery was one of very great 
