62 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
DESTRUCTION OF THE EGG-LOBSTER AND ITS SPAWN. 
The berried lobster has many enemies, of which man is the chief, but if we except 
the latter, she seems to avoid them with remarkable skill. At least it is true that 
during the long period in which the ova are carried the losses are relatively slight. 
You detect but rarely a bad egg in the whole lot, and when, after ten months, the 
mother’s fostering care is about to end, one is surprised to see how healthy every 
egg appears and how few seem to have been torn off. I have found that lobsters will 
scratch off and devour their own eggs when confined in aquaria; and we often see the 
spider crab ( Libinia canaliculata) industriously picking off its eggs, as if for its own 
amusement, when it seems to have no lack of other food. The eel has a decided 
partiality for the eggs of the lobster, but the cautious way in which she keeps her 
tail folded up when crawling over the bottom, and the lightning-like speed with which 
she can dart about when disturbed, must often circumvent her most wily adversary. 
Ou July 5, 1S90, 1 placed three egg-lobsters, from which I wished to obtain embryos in 
progressive stages of development, in a small floating car. One of these was a large 
perfect female, a second was a small perfect female, and a third was disabled by the 
loss of its claws. The next morning I found that the smaller female lobster had been 
killed and eaten. The large one had cut its body in two, at the junction of the “back” 
and “tail,” and eels had eaten out the flesh and picked off nearly every egg, only two 
or three being left. I afterwards found that lobsters kept in a similar way were liable 
to lose their eggs while still active, and the aggressor was undoubtedly the eel. 
Fishermen have maintained (28, p. 11) that egg-lobsters, if put together, devour 
each other’s eggs, but this is not true. At least I am certain that this never occurs 
unless the lobster is first killed by its companions. 
At Small Point, Maine, “berry” lobsters used to be considered the best kind of 
bait for certain fish. The “tail” of the lobster was cut off, a part of the upper shell 
removed, and the eggs left clinging to the under side. This practice was probably not 
confined to a single locality. 
The pernicious destruction of the egg or spawn-lobsters is wisely prohibited in 
most of the States, and it is to be regretted that an attempt to enforce such a law has 
not been made in the Maritime Provinces and in Europe. This should certainly be 
done even if the law is often evaded, owing to the ease with which the eggs can be 
scraped off with a mitten or brush. 
Ignorance of the fact that the lobster carries her eggs for a long period has been 
an element of confusion in the establishment of close seasons. Thus in Connecticut 
the law of 1878 forbade the destruction of females with spawn from July 1 to July 15. 
In Massachusetts, in 1880, the sale of females with eggs was prohibited during July. 
In 1883 the Maine legislature made a close time for egg-bearing females from April l to 
August 1; this was changed in 1885 to from October 1 to August 15. In both Maine 
and Massachusetts it is now, as it should be, illegal to take spawn-lobsters at any time. 
The destruction of the spawn of lobsters is a terrible waste of life, and this is of 
itself sufficient reason for the adoption of any measure which may tend to lessen the 
evil. In certain parts of England lobsters in berry have been considered as in the 
very best condition for eating, and the eggs are highly prized for salad. On this 
account and because it was thought too great a hardship to compel the fishermen to 
throw back the “berried hens,” the commissioners were not inclined to recommend 
