Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1920-12-17

has provided the lobster with the in
stinct of fear and as the shedding
period approaches it hides in the
marine growth, under rocks and vari-
GUS places of concealment to await
this period of helplessness.
= THE cod and many other bottom
feeding fish as well as the people who
inhabit the lands of America, namely
ourselves. have grown to realize that
the lobster is the most delicious morI
sci of the sea and SO the ground fish
seek out the hiding places of this
precious crustacian and devour it
when it is unable to defend itself or
fee from it's enemies,
Second. Those resulting from the
death dealing devices used by man.
These latter are by far the most i'm
portant for the reason that before the
lobster became so fashionable as a
food. it was certainly very abundant
on the New England coast. Before
man became its greatest enemy there
is ample proof that of all the species
of the sea the lobster was the most
favored: but with the coming of the
white man, the equilibrium of natures
laws was sravely upset. The sole
reason for this great decrease in the
abundance of this specie of food fish
is to be found in the conditions in
troduced by civilized man and these
fall naturally enough under two heads.
First. The increased market de-
mands caused by the increasing popu-
lation. accumulated wealth and an
inherited taste for toothsome dainties
entirely apart from their constituent
composition as to food value.
Second. Inadequate laws, I. e.,
laws without teeth. difficulty of en-
forcement, based on misconception
and little attempt at efficient enforce
ment.
been met by improved conditions nor
the analysing study of methods
whereby to improve the situation.
other than through the ineconomic ex-
ploration Of wider fishing grounds.
The fishermen being optimistic are
misled by their own conceptions that
Holsters are not growing scarcer,
when in reality they are, when one
considers how slowly in proportion
but inevitably Nature works.
"The fishing territory has grown
into a vast magnitude of area COM
pared with the first fishing grounds
within my memory, and the power
boats. with their different devices for
hauling traps, have all come into use
through an endeavor to keep the sup
ply up to within some proportion of
the demand. If the fishermen of to-
day were to go back to the old-styie
traps. row boats and many other inn
plements that entered into the old
time lobster fishermen's gears and
covered the same fishing area that
was covered in those days, the result
would be they could not catch enough
Holsters to supply one of the largest
dealers in New England. and lobster
fishing would cease because the fish
ermen could not possibly earn a liv-
ing.
ANY attempt to compare the
lobster with the free swimming
migratory fish is not based on sound
principles Of reasoning or good com
mon sense, and is therefore mislead-
ing. In the first place there can be
no comparisons in the production of
free swimming fish, which yield many
millions Of eggs annually. and the
lobster, whose power of yielding eggs
has been so much reduced by over
fishing that it now only averages ap-
proximately 10000 eyes at time and
it is also known that the lobster gen.
orally breeds but once in two years.
Please keep in mind that understood
| tcfo <nf to, 0fk -
breed at all before it is marketed and
eaten and it is well-known fact that
Holsters do not come to the period of
reproduction on the Maine coast be-
fore they are 10 inches in length and
often longer and five to six years. old.
Then compare them with the natural
producers. the mammoth breeders Of
the past, that averaged $4,000 eggs at
a time and certainly no one can be so
blind that he cannot see why our
Holsters have grown scarcer.
TT has also been proven that the
lobster is not a migratory fish. that
each individual occupies a small belt
along the coast. and this seldom ex-
tends more than five miles up and
down the ocean bed. even then )pnly
on and off shore to deep and shoal
water. Nature has taught them to
seek deep water in winter and shoal
water in summer-for this reason, the
lobster is subject to the operations Of
man in our own State throughout the
year and is not exempt from being
caught for six months of the IL, as
are many species of migratory fish.
The effect therefore of mans opera
lions has been the direct cause for the
decline in this specie and a marked
elimination in the Slxe of the in
dividuals. These conditions did not
exist before fishing began but they
are SO universal where 1t has been
carried - and more marked when all
have been taken regardless Of size as
proof there is no exception to this
rule and from Newfoundland to New
Jersey the story Is the same. Every