The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-02-05
NURSES FOR YOUNG LOBSTERS
SCIENCE THINKS IT MAS NET
4 LONG FELT WANT.

price OF HOLSTERS SO Per Cent In the
Next Five Ycars--ingenlous but
HeartIess Use Found for sculnIDs
! BooTHBAY HABBoR, Me-, Feb. 4-The
new lobster hatchery which the Govern
ment has erected on the rocky point reach
ing into the Atlantic Ocean starts business
this year with capacity for receiving and
Matching 20, 900 eggs In year. and two
steamers are out among the islands along
shore collecting eggs.
! After three years Of experimenting with
! hatching Holsters at Woods Hole and
Gloucester the Fish Commission has learned
how not 70 do many things In bringing up
young HOLSTERS in the way they should go.
in their natural surroundings the female
iousters produce eggs once In two years.
lobster that is healthy and ten inches in
length Will yield about Is 90 eggs.
Instead OF casting the new laid eggs
adrift the mother lobster attaches them
TO the under side Of her armored tail. where
they remain from July until the following
May. As soon a. the water becomes warm
The eggs hatch, and the long white. gelat-
nous lines, which will eventually turn TO
Holsters, float away and mingle with the
creatures which abound in the sea.
FOR three or four weeks the fry seem 10
have no power to protect themselves from
their enemies, and when they are not eaten
by sea urchins, star fishes and other pre-
dacious creatures. they turn cannibals and
live upon their own brothers and sisters
SO great Is the infant mortality among
lohsters that II Is estimated that out Of
every 100000 hatched from the eggs not
more than 100 survive the second moult,
ut which time the young cr1istaceans de-
velop hard shells and begin to take an
interest in life
score or more Of the most expert
biologists in the country have spent three
summers experimenting with the lobster
fry and trying TO discover ii the lobster
young can be induced 10 survive under
artificial conditions. Most OF the trials
have resulted in killing from o5 10 IS per
cent. OF the fry before the second mout.
The best device yet invented ID 10 place
the fry in cloth covered cylinders about 10
feet long and feet in dia meter and keep
the contained salt water agitated by fans
operated from a shaft which runs through
tne cylinders. Unless the water is in mo-
ton all the time the fry fall 10 the DO tom
of the cloth prisons, where they prey upon
one another until out of 10000 fry no more
than a score will be left alive at the end
OF two weeks. Until last year the best
result that had been obtained from these
lobster nurseries was TO save 7l2 lobsten,
after the second moulting from 100000
fry.
Tho trouble in rearing the fry TO an aSe
when they are large enough to guard them
selves against harm lies in the fact that
they are so careless about their own welfare
that they surrender to any living creature
that comes in their vicinity. Cannibalism
is the most serious obstacle to overcome.
When two young Holsters set out to swim
the ten feet between the ends of cylinder
and are moving III parallel lines, the chances
are more than 10 10 / that when they ar
rive at their destination one will be inside
the other. 1t has been learned. however, /
that the greatest danger to the fry comes
from foes that are OF small size.
When two days from the egg specimen
will turn out to avoid fish that is eight
inches long. though it will not vary a hairs
breadth from its course to get away from
one Of its own kind This discovery has led
the scientists 10 put soulpins and small
cunners into the cloth tanks for the purpose
of noting results
1t WAS found that while the fry would
make an effort to escape from certain
death from the greed of the fishes, they
were unable TO swim fast enough aud do
struotion awaited every one as soon as it
was seen by its enemies Still, hoping for
some solution to the problem which had
baff'ed them 50 long. the fish specialists
next captured small sCulpins and encased
their mouths in fine gauze that would ADMIT
the water, but exclude the Holsters, and
found they had hit upon method that was
full Of promise.
by keeping the captive sculpins hungry
20 they would make constant forts to pro-
cure food, the young Holsters were chased
about their prisons 30 furiously that they
had no time to prey upon their own kind.
and having enough shredded porgie to feed
upon, they passed through two moults and
assumed shells without sacrificing moro
than one-half OF their number TO the
accidents peculiar to extreme youth.
1t " asserted that il the cllstodians Of the
new hatchery can induce ono half Of the fry
to live until their shells grow, the price of
Holsters in the markets Of the big cities will
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