220 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
eggs or not, and another is that the lobster often matures at a much later period than 
has been generally supposed. The legal size limit in Canadian waters fluctuated from 
9 to 9£ inches between 1874 and 1892. In 1895 the legislature amended the law, 
making it illegal to take lobsters less than 104 inches long. In 1895 the legal limit 
in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York was 10^ inches; in Ehode 
Island 10, and in Connecticut 6 inches. The legislature of Massachusetts was ready 
to reduce the 104 limit the next year, but its act was vetoed by Governor Wolcott. 
Some lobsters are known to produce eggs when 8 inches long ; therefore, it is said, 
a 10^- inch limit is too great. This can not be allowed. While a few female lobsters 
produce eggs when 8 inches long, the majority at this size do not. The same is prob- 
ably true of lobsters 9 and 94 inches long. Some lobsters do not spawn until after 
reaching the length of 12 inches, and the limit of 10£ inches is none too great. Thus 
we see how such attempts to protect the lobster have failed through the legalized 
killing of immature individuals. 
The legislation on the subject of close seasons forms a curious piece of reading. 
Ignorance of the fact that the lobster carries her eggs for the period of ten months 
has been an element of confusion here. In Canada, almost every combination of the 
calendar has been tried. Close seasons for canning establishments, for fishermen, and 
for different sections of the coast have been tried in vain, but no combination has 
brought good or lasting results. 
The object of a close season is to let the animal breed in peace, but there is a 
peculiar difficulty in the case of the lobster which makes it impossible to confer any 
protection upon it worth mentioning by a short close season. The difficulty lies in 
the fact that the animal does not drop its eggs in the sea or deposit them on some 
foreign substance, as the older naturalists believed, bui carries them on its body. 
Consequently, in order to protect the eggs you have to protect the egg lobster. This 
has been attempted in the United States and in Canada by making it illegal to sell 
the u berried lobster.” But the object is defeated by the ease with which this law can 
be evaded. It is only necessary to scrape the eggs from the body. Again, to obviate 
this, attempts have been made to allow the capture of “ berried lobsters” and to buy 
up the eggs from the canneries and hatch them by artificial means. On this point I 
shall speak later. 
The period of egg-laying on the coast of the United States extends, as we have 
seen, over the months of July and August. If fishing in these months is closed the 
spawners are protected. 1 This can be done, and would result in some good, but at 
either end the spawning females would be subjected to fire. First, there being no 
way to detect females which are ready to spawn, these would be killed in great 
numbers up to the beginning of the period; then, after the close in September, if 
egg lobsters were captured and the eggs removed and destroyed, the good which has 
been done would be partially neutralized. 
Protection to the immature lobster by regulating the construction of traps, making 
the distance between the lower slats sufficiently great to let out all the lobsters except 
those of the legal size — 104 inches — is a measure which, if generally carried out, could 
not fail to be beneficial. 
The canning industry is undoubtedly responsible for a large share in the depletion 
of this fishery. It is operated in the spring, and for years lias destroyed large 
1 This period is well covered by the close period in Massachusetts, which extends from June 20 
to September 20. 
