The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-01-15
L0BSTERS GROWING SCARCER
THE OTERFISHING is DEPLETING
THEM.
How Lobster Pots Are Manipulated by
the Eishermeu,

with painful surprise that the ratio be
tween the size and the price is steadily
increasing in favor of the price. Fo
80 cents he can now obtain about a!
much lobster meat as he would find il
three little neck CLAIMS. In addition t.
sters with one claw missing are more
frequently served now. and if he car
ried pocket-rule he would probably
also discover that at least 30 per cent
of the Holsters served to him were be-
low the legal requirements Of nine
inches in length. If the thinks the
claws have been taken off by the cook
to make into salad he is mistaken. The
lobster lost them in a fight If he calls
attention to the short length he will be
informed that the rule now it to meas
ure from the tail to the tip of the
claws, not to the nose.
The fact of the matter is that lob
Sters are becoming extremely scarce
and that where wholesale dealers form
erly shipped thousand pounds a day
they now think a hundred pounds fair
average. A good lobster for broiling
should weigh a little more than half
pound, and one that weighed two pounds
would be considered large, the average
being about pound. So great has been
the demand for Holsters during the past
few years that the fishermen no longer
put the small ones back into the water
again, but take everything they find in
the pots, so that the breed is gradually
thinning out and Holsters Of large size,
three or four pounds, are very rarely
taken. Those that are too small for the
market the fisherman eat themselves,
and as they broil the little fellows, in
which there is not much but the tails,
it takes about half dozen to make
meal for one man.
The lobster industry is pursued all
along the New England coast by class
of men who like to be their own bosses,
and who have other occupations to fill
in their time. The outfit for clustering
is more expensive than for any other
kind of fishing, but the profits are in
proportion The season usually begins
in spring and lasts until the first frosts
in December. During the winter
months it is not worth while to set out
lobster pots unless the conditions are
very favorable for lifting them regular
1y.
When a man concludes to add lobster
ing to his other means of obtaining
livelihood, he must first provide himself
with good boat. Small catboats,
sloops and sharpies are frequently US
ed, but the 16-foot f1atbottom rowboat
is the best for all-round work. The pots
are usually homemade affairs, and are
put together during the winter months.
These pots are about four feet long and
two wide and are built of oak laths.
The bottom is fiat and the sides and top
form an arch, something like section
of a railway tunnel of letter u upside
down.
One end of the pot is closed with
laths, while the other is closed by
well-tarred net of twine shaped like
funnel, the large end outside the pot
and the inner end forming ring about
four inches in diameter. This net
reaches about a third of the way
through the pot and beyond it is an
other funnel net just like it, with the
small end toward the rear end of the
pot. The object of this second net will
be explained presently. Between these
nets is an upright skewer on which the
bait is stuck, and the pot is weighted
with bricks or stones securely tied to
the bottom. A removable door made of |
1aths runs the whole length of one side |
of the pot and lis held fast by turn but
TONS A nine-thread manila rope is |
made fast to one end of the pot and at
the other end of, the rope one or two |
corks and three-foot wooden buoy are |
attached. These buoys are painted |
white, so as to be easily seen, and have |
ON them some small mark SO that one |
man can tell his buoys from another's.
A lobster pot provided with about
hundred feet of rope costs So or'$4, and
III will seldom last more than one sea-
son. The nets soon wear out or get |
bitten and torn by the Holsters and fish;
the ropes rot in the water, and worms
get into the laths and eat the heart out
of them until you can crumble them
I'D between the fingers as if they were
slices of thin toast. There is an i'm
mense fortune awaiting the man that
will discover something to prevent
these worms from attacking woodwork.
under water. All along the Sound they |
are especially destructive. The nets
are another unsolved problem. Copper
wire has been tried but it has been
found that Holsters will not enter net
with anything but Irvine net, and they
won't go near a metal pot. Even cellu-
loid has been tried and it failed
About Is or 20 pots are as many as
one man can attend to in a tideway.
They must be planted on rocky or
hard bottom, as it is useless to set them
on the mud. The pots are taken out in
a boat and thrown overheard with
about 20 feet more line than the depth
of water at high tide. When the tide
runs strongly, the buoys are carried
under and cannot be seen, so that the
only time the pots can be lifted is at
the slack of the tide, as they cannot be
lifted at all in stormy weather they
must often be left for several days |
without being hauled.
Any kind of fish will do for bait
bunkers being the favorite. These bunk
ers are caught in a gill net which is
set out at night, and some are sailed
for use after the bunker season is over.
Dogfish, hake and devilfsh are also US
ed; skates ana dead cooIs viii DO at d
pinch, and any kind Of food. in fact,
which is not good enough for man.
Two or three bunkers are forced down
On the skewer through the gills and a
rubber ring is pushed down over them !