3 68 
bulletin of the bureau of fisheries. 
this fishery, the catch amounted to 14,234,182 pounds, with a market value of $268,739. 
Twenty years later the product had fallen to 12,346,450 pounds, a decline of over 
2,000,000 pounds, while its value ($1,062,206) had advanced fourfold. The product 
of the fishery for 1880 in Massachusetts was 4,315,416 pounds, which sold for $158,229, 
while the catch of 1900, though only half as great, was worth more than that of 10 years 
before. 
The average price per pound in the shell in Canada was 9.12 cents in 1883, 14.10 
cents in 1893, while in 1S98 it had risen to 18.72 cents { 187 ). Large lobsters which 25 or 
30 years ago could often be bought at 5 cents apiece are now sold in the shell at 20 to 
30 cents a pound,® which at the latter figure represents a cost of about 55 cents a pound 
for all the edible parts, and over a dollar a pound for the clear meat of the tail and claws 
alone. (See table 3, p. 214). Thus, from being one of the cheapest food products of 
the ocean, this delicious crustacean has become one of the dearest luxuries. Once 
the regular summer visitor to the country villages throughout the New England States, 
it has now practically disappeared from the markets of all but the larger centers, and is 
there to be had only at many times the former cost. The fame of the live broiled lobster 
has spread over the Eastern and Western States, but, regardless of size or quality, the 
consumer must pay from 60 cents to a dollar or more for a single lobster. 6 
The former abundance of these animals on the Atlantic coast of Canada and New 
England was incredible, and probably for many years in succession more than 100,000,000 
have been marketed, representing a cost to consumers at present prices of upward of 
$40,000,000. The shores on certain sections of the coast have been often described 
as strewn with lobsters in “windrows” after a storm. (See p. 218.) The animals 
were so common it is not surprising that their value was not appreciated. 
A fisherman at Southwest Harbor, Maine, who had trapped lobsters for half a 
century, gave me the following account of his experience: About the year 1875, when 
the annual shrinkage in the wild crop had already been felt in many places, he took 
at one haul from 100 traps, which had been down 2 days, 1,985 pounds of lobsters. All 
but 15 of his pots contained lobsters, and from one, which was filled to the spindle, 
35 animals were taken. As a contrast to past conditions, few of marketable size were 
at this time to be caught (July 27, 1902). The day before our interview this fisherman’s 
son pulled 60 traps, set off Bunkers ledge, between that point and the Duck Islands, 
once a famous fishing region for this crustacean, and took only 9 lobsters of marketable 
size. Illustrations of this kind could be extended indefinitely, but the fact of decline 
is the one subject upon which all are agreed. It is the burden of nearly every report 
on the fishery which has been issued for a score of years. 
The causes of the decline of the fishery are plainly evident. More lobsters have been 
taken from the sea than nature has been able to replace by the slow process of reproduc- 
a Thirty cents a pound at Cleveland, Ohio, April, 29, 1907. Wholesale prices at T Wharf, Boston: Targe live lobsters, 24 
cents per pound; boiled, at 28 cents; chicken, live, at 18 and 20 cents; boiled, 20 and 22 cents. — (The Boston Globe, August 4, 
1910.) Retail prices at the same time, 30 cents per pound; earlier in season, 2s cents. 
b Lobsters are not cheap in the restaurants of London, where boiled lobsters are sold for 8 pence to 2 shillings or more each, 
according to size. One and six is a common price for the half of a boiled lobster. (1903.) (Compare p. 173.) 
