Connecticut western news., 1916-09-14
THE VANISHING LOBSTER

It Is no exaggeration 10 say that in practically every known natural region of the North Atlantic coast the lobster fishery is either depleted or in a state of decline. The evidences of this con- dition are to be found in steadily in. creasing prices and in the statistics of fisheries. The market price, or cost to the consumer, has steadily advanced in direct ratio to the steady decrease in the market supply. From 1889 to 1899 the annual crop was reduced one- half while its value had more than doubled. In Maine, which in some years has produced two. thirds of the entire output of Holsters, the produce fell of in twenty years over 2,000, 900 pounds. while its value advanced four fold. In Massachusetts the catch of 1900. though only half us great as that of 1880, was worth more than the total catch of ten years before. Connecticut has similar story to tell, and it is only sound and essentially uniform code of laws for the entire fishery that will check the constant and ever in. creasing drain that is now surely and steadily forcing the lobster to extinc. tion.
 The largest lobster on record was taken in the spring of 1897, off Atlantic Highlands, N. J., weighed 34 pounds, and measured 23a inches, total length. This was nineteen years ago. At that time To- or l2-pound lobster was not at all uncommon, yet at present, practically none of this class find the way to our markets.
 The American lobster lays it's eggs but once in two years. The eggs are carried attached to the under side of the tail for nearly year, or until they are hatched ten or eleven months after deposition. The fry, or young, when matched, rise to the surface or toward it, and lead free swimming life for three weeks, hardly larger than a mos. quito. They perish by the thousands before the storm and countless fish and other enemies. It has been estimated that probably not more than two in 30, 900 survive and grow to a market able size. This shows that the present gauge laws are indefensible, because they rob the fishery of the billions of eggs necessary to maintain it. It speaks loudly in favor of a law to pro- tect the large egg producers, and also of the newer plan of rearing the young to the stage when they seek the bottom, instead of liberating them soon after matching.
 An egg-bearing lobster 16 inches long, which, according to good author ity, is nearly eighteen years old, has had succession of eight broods and has produced 210, GOO eggs. The larger. animal is thus worth nine times as much as the smaller; in other words, ill the course of twelve years it's value to the fishery has been increased 800 per cent. It is these big Holsters, which produce by the fifty and hundred thousands, that have been nearly wiped out, and the maintenance of the race depends almost entirely upon the smaller adults which produce about one.tenth that of the larger class.
 The present gauge laws are good, as far as they go, but the rigid enforce. ment of these laws is next to impossi. ble, and the illegal sale of short or chicken" Holsters has become a trsle of big proportions.
 The shortsightedness of the lobster fishermen who brush or comb off the eggs from the female to evade the law for the sake of the few cents the lobster brings, is a clear case of not only killing the goose that lays the golden egg" for the public but he is killing his own future business. The average number of eggs destroyed by this method from ore 5.inch female is, ap- proxiuuCely, 5000; from 10-inch female, over 10000; from l2.inch female. over 2l,000, and from an IS. inch female, nearly so, 900.
 l. Jt strange that Holsters are becoH- ing scarce and expensive when their future generations are destroyed by the millions in this way? Something must be done to stop the illegal and wholesale destruction of Holsters and their eggs or there will soon be no lob sters
 A double gauge law has been sug. gested, making it illegal to catch or possess Holsters between certain min- imum and maximum lengths only, say four and eight inches, inclusive, cara pace measure, thus preventing the des- truction of not only the little fellows but the large producing adults.
 The present laws shift and duty of maintaining the race upon the small producers, which the law of survival plainly tells us it is unable to bear. Spare the large producer, then, by the proper gauge law, and nature will save the race.
 Much more interesting and valuable detailed information regarding this epicurean delicacy may be had from the Government Bureau of Fisheries bulletin on the Natural History of the American Lobster, from which portion of the above is taken.