Chapter V.— ENEMIES OF THE LOBSTER. 
PREDACEOUS ENEMIES. 
The adult lobster, whether with eggs attached to its body or not, is the prey of numer- 
ous fish which feed upon the sea bottom, like the sharks, skates, and rays. When of 
considerable size or in soft condition it is also devoured by the cod, pollock, striped 
bass, sea bass, tautog, and probably by many other species. In fact every predaceous 
fish which feeds upon the bottom may be looked upon in general as an enemy of the 
lobster. 
Next to man with his traps, the codfish is probably the most destructive enemy 
of the lobster, for it not only takes in the soft and hard shell animals alike up to 8 inches 
or more in length, but is very partial to the young from 2 to 4 inches long. 
If the lobster is thus attacked and destroyed in large numbers by fish after it has 
acquired the habits of the adult and has many devices to avoid its enemies, what shall 
we say of the destruction which is wrought on the young during the first three or four 
weeks of their life? From the time of hatching up to from the fourth or fifth stage the 
young lobster swims at the surface and becomes an easy prey to all surface-feeding 
fish, some of which, like the menhaden, roam about in vast schools, straining the water as 
effectively as the towing net. When lobsters settle in relatively shallow water the 
greedy cunners or even fish of smaller size would doubtless prove vastly more destructive. 
During this period the lobster measures from one-third to three-fifths of an inch in length, 
and is not only helpless in the hands of its animate enemies, but is subject to a vast 
amount of indiscriminate destruction from the forces of inanimate nature. 
parasites and messmates. 
But two parasites in the strict sense have thus far been known to infest the lobster, 
although it is probable that others will he discovered. One of these, a trematode worm 
{Stichocotyle nephropis) first noticed in the intestine of the Norwegian lobster, was later 
detected in the American form, about 2 per cent of these animals being infested by it. 
Its final host is probably some species of fish which preys upon the lobster, but the adult 
trematode is unknown. 
The only other strict parasite which has been found to trouble the adult lobster is the 
large gregarine (Gregarina gigantea), discovered in the intestine of the European lobster 
by Van Beneden (269). 
