THE AMERICAN LOBSTER. 
11 
tlie country. The winter shipment is also very considerable. Large numbers are 
immediately boiled for home consumption, while many are kept alive in floating cars 
at the market until required. The impounding of lobsters, or placing them in large 
inclosures of salt water, called pounds, where they can be kept during the winter, 
is now successfully practiced on a large scale. 
VII. 
We have witnessed in the lobster fishery for many years past the anomaly of a 
declining industry with a yearly increasing yield, but with the gradual diminution in 
the size of the lobsters caught and an undue increase in the number of traps and 
fishermen. “How much longer,” writes the inspector of fisheries of New Brunswick, 
“an increased catch can be made out of a diminishing supply is a problem of some 
interest to those who have watched the rise, progress, and decay of this industry.” 1 
In 1886 fully 90,000,000 lobsters were captured in Canada, 2 principally in Nova 
Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec. Out of this vast number 
nearly 34,000,000 were taken in New Brunswick alone, and 22,000,000 in Prince 
Edward Island. These numbers are extraordinary, when we consider, as in the last 
instance, the small extent of the coast and the narrow limits of the fishing season. 
In regard to the catch of lobsters in New Brunswick for 1886, the inspector of 
fisheries says in his report 3 that the average size is diminishing, and “to fill a pound 
can now requires rather more than an average of six lobsters — about 24 ounces of 
meat per fish. The returns show 4,661,812 cans preserved, and 4,290 tons of fresh 
lobsters. In order to fill these cans, 28,000,000 lobsters were killed. If to these we 
add the number exported fresh, allowing 1J pounds to each, which is a large average 
the number killed during the season will be 33,720,000.” 4 5 
In 1887 about 70,000,000 lobsters were taken in Canada, and in 1892 upward of 
68,000,000 lobsters (estimated as above) were captured, valued at nearly $2,000,000.® 
In 1884 the catch of lobsters in New Brunswick amounted to 5,662,072 cans and 
1,709 tons, valued at $900,580, the number of traps in use being 105,984. In 1892 the 
number of traps had increased to 172,022, an increase of over 60 per cent, while the 
product had decreased by nearly the same amount, being 3,204,320 cans and 1,132 
tons, valued at only $493, 804. 6 
The average annual yield of the Norwegian lobster fishery from 1879 to 1884 is 
estimated to have been 1,175,000 lobsters, valued at $107,468, the greater number 
1 W. H. Venning, inspector of fisheries of New Brunswick. (Annual Report of the Department of 
Fisheries, Dominion of Canada, 1886, p. 146.) 
-’This estimate is based upon the official statistical return of the lobster fishery, allowing five 
lobsters to a pound can of meat, and a trifle over 2 pounds in weight to each lobster. The yield in 
1892 was 16,434,431 pounds in cans, and 8,662 tons of fresh lobsters, valued at $2,638,394. (Report on 
the Lobster Industry of Canada for 1892. Supplement to the Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the 
Department of Marine and Fisheries, No. lOd, Ottawa, 1893.) 
3 Annual Report of the Department of Fisheries of the Dominion of Canada, 1886. 
1 Ibid. 
5 It should be remembered that these estimates, large as they seem, are based upon statistics 
which are generally reliable, and probably fall far below the number of animals annually killed; for 
they do not include the number of undersized lobsters illegally used for canning, nor those used 
as food by fishermen and their families. Then there is, besides, the vast number of lobsters which 
annually fall a prey to other enemies than man. 
6 Report on the Lobster Industry of Canada, 1892, Supplement to the Twenty-fifth Annual 
Report of the Department of Marine ami Fisheries, No. KW, Ottawa, 1893. 
