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The investigations which have been made on the North- 
umberland coast have indicated this and the period when it should 
be given. The migration experiments explain also why it is that 
a protected area will improve. It has been proved by the 
experiments that the main population of crabs is a stationary one, 
migrating only outwards and inwards and only to a limited extent 
along the coast ; the females which have recently cast and are soon 
to become berried lobsters alone migrating to the north. It is only 
to a slight extent therefore that a district will gain from the 
protection in the district to the south by the migration of a number 
of the female crabs. 
The trend of the facts in a few words is that the fishermen will, 
by refraining from fishing during the months October to December 
inclusive, catch during the remaining nine months of the year more 
crabs and obtain better prices for them than if they were to fish for 
the whole year. 
During these months then the only thing the fishermen can do, 
if crabbing is to cease, is to fish with lines for codling and such 
other species as come inshore at that period. In years prior to the 
time when winter crabbing was introduced this was the custom, 
and even now it can be made to give fair returns. It is admittedly 
easier to bait lines for crab-bait or to buy crab-bait and use the 
creels. But it is not the policy which in light of the facts set forth 
can be recommended. The very fact that there is this temptation 
to adopt the easier method of fishing, points clearly to the 
advisability of passing a by-law prohibiting the landing and sale 
of crabs in the district during the last three months of the year. 
