The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1915-03-10
The HAsKIN TER
SAVING TIE u ORSTER
By Frederic ) Haakin.

A,fAav11N1 IL
By Frederir
1 n The authorities have begun 10 fear
that the American lobster is 10 be
4. extel-nfnatcd. This creature of the
! bed CT the sea is being captured and
killed with such pidity that its num-
bers are decreasing as rapidly as did
those OF the buffalo when the white
man pushed his habitations into the
great plains AS the buffalo was the
: prize denizen OF the American prair-
lies, So is the lobster considered tho
/! king of the creatures that stalk the
Eocean bottom. AS the number OF buff
.falo were decreased from uncountcd
!! thousands to . mere biological REM
nant In sheltered reservations, so. II
| the present rate Of use continues, will
| the lobster become show creature,
only, exhibited to the curious.
The federal bureau of fisheries mas
just issued q chart which shows the
istartling decline in the lobster sup
ply. The outstanding fact shown by
This chart is that. where the lobster
catch af Maine vas %, eco ,001 pounds
a year a quarter Of century ago, il
is now but 100000 pounds Steadily,
! but unfailingly has the supply de-
creased for a generation. This has
taken place despite the fact that the
prices offered for Holsters have stead
lilly increased, and that the efforts to
capture them have grown steadily
greater
When $4,000 900 pounds Of Holsters
were being taken in Maine twenty
FIVE years ago-the total money re-
Eceiyed for the catch was but a little
over S500,Qe0. Now the catch is but
100000 pounds, les than q third OF
what it once was, yet the total price
received is S1,500,000. This means
that the public is paying three times
as much for the small catch as it
did for the big one. AS a matter of
TACT, the price paid for Holsters today
is about twelve times what it was
twenty-five years ago.
The fact that nearly third as
as many lobstcrs are caught now as
were captured when the Industry was
in its prime, does not mean that
Their are still a third as many of these
creatures in existence The demand
is so strong and the prices offered SO
attractive, that more people today
are engaged in the taking Of Holsters
than ever before More money is in
vested in apparatus The beds are
being more thoroughly combed than
ever before. Every lobster available
is being taken. The numbers remain
ing are infinitely small compared with
those formerly existing. The danger
of extinction is already at hand.
! To prevent OF to postpone the ar
rival. of the time when there will be
no Holsters, the federal and state au-
~ ,IIY;, <1i
There are stated regulations which
are intended to prevent the market
ing Of young Holsters These regu-
lation require that lobster shall
be of certain size before it may be
sold But there is no uniformity
among the regulations of the various
states. Maine, for instance, allows no
HOLSTER TO be taken until they have
attained the length OF 10 1-2 inches,
Massachusetts on the contrary, all
lows them TO be sold when they are
nine inches long So the Maine lob
ster men sell their short Holsters to
boats from Massachusetts. which lie
just outside the jurisdiction of the
I former state for the purpose of this
purchase Thus Their is no co-ordi-
/ nation in the attempt to maintain the
supply and the Holsters are steadily
decreasing
I The federal government is most ac-
tive in this emergency. 1t is bend
1 ing every effort toward the establish
grounds. The bureau of fisheries
has had sucn remarkable success in
the fishes of the Allan
tic coast to the Pacific waters that it
lis hopeful Of being equally success
tful with Holsters. Twenty years ago,
sporadic attempts TO effect this trans
fer were made, but with little success.
Recently the attempt has been renew
cd In 913, 4 900 adult Holsters We're
taken from Boothbay Hanbor, Maine
10 Seattle In a special car. They stood
1.-The trip we'll and were planted in the
waters about the San Juan islands,
near that point. Here the conditions
are almost ideal fol. the development
I of the lobster. Each, yea new ship
iments have been sent to these Pacific
waters Two carloads of live lob
sters have recently crossed the CONT
nent and been liberated. the govern
lment intends to continue this process
for many years. a few Holsters in a
big ocean are hard to trace and there
Ills The possibility that the Pacific
Coast may prove Il haven for these
sfavarites OF the cafe. and save them
for future generations. M
IN the meantime great efforts are
being made to increase the yearly
crop in New England waters. The
states and the federal government
have established many hatcheries.
and in these, millions Of little lob
l,sters are each year inclrbated and put
back into the waters from which
1.-THE others came. SO 1t Is posi-
bic to add very materially to the an
nual catch. III y.