CHAPTER XII

INSHORE FISHERIES-SHELLFISH

THE LOBSTER.

The lobster is found on the Atlantic coast from Delaware to Labrador. It occurs most abundantly on the coast of Maine and Nova Scotia. It is found in depths of 100 fathoms, and while more abundant on the shores it has been found in considerable quantities on the offshore banks. In April or May the lobster on the Maine coast comes into comparatively shallow waters, where it remains until late in the fall, going back to the ocean or deeper waters of the bays in October or November. Its favorite resort is on rocky bottoms, very few being captured on sandy or muddy ground.

The enemies of the lobster are so numerous that one writer has said that "every predaceous fish which feeds upon the bottom may be looked upon in general as an enemy of the lobster."1 The most destructive enemies are the cod, the sea eel and the dog-fish. The greatest enemy of the adult lobster is man. For several years past, the decline in the lobster fishery of New England has aroused the attention of all who are interested in preserving this valuable food-fish. Where inquiries are made into the cause of the decline of the industry it is found that, in addition to its enemies, the method of propagation of the lobster is a natural hindrance to its rapid increase.

1 Francis H. Herrick, The American Lobster, Bulletin, United States Fish Commission for 1895, pp. 1 to 252.

The female lobster spawns but once in two years. The eggs, after being laid, are carried by the female in clusters under the tail for a period of ten or eleven months, before they hatch. The number of eggs laid varies with the size of the fish. The law of reproduction has been expressed as follows: The number of eggs produced at each reproductive period varies in a geometrical series, while the length of lobsters producing these eggs varies in an arithmetical series. Thus, an 8 inch lobster produces 5,000 eggs, a 10 inch lobster, 10,000 eggs, and one 12 inches long, 20,000 eggs. The high rate of production is not maintained beyond the length of fourteen or sixteen inches. The average female lobster lays eggs for the first time in the summer of its sixth year. The largest number of eggs recorded for a female is 97,440.2

1

After being hatched the young lobsters cut loose from their mother, and rise to the surface where they live as larvæ, being about one-third of an inch long. Within a period of eight weeks the larvæ have passed through three stages, and have molted five or six times. By this time they are three-fifths of an inch long and sink to the bottom, seeking to find some sheltering piles of rocks near the shore where they can burrow. When winter approaches the young lobster is from one to three inches long. This short sketch of the method of reproduction of the lobster and its early life as larvæ is given that it may be more easily understood why the lobster needs ample protection from man if it is to persist as a food-fish on our shores.

Previous to the year 1880 there had been no attempt to write a history of the lobster fishery or to publish any extensive reports on the subject. Mention is made in the early records of the New England colonists of the abun

1 Commissioners of Inland Fisheries, Rhode Island, 1906. 2 F. H. Herrick, The American Lobster.

dance and good qualities of the lobster, and it is very probable that it was regarded as an important food-fish. Its use, however, was confined to the people of the sea coast for a long time, and it was not until 1840, or later, that the lobster was used to any extent at any distance from its natural surroundings.

The lobster canning industry of the United States was first attempted at Eastport, Maine, in 1840, and it was made successful in 1843. The business was in the experimental stage for several years. Salmon, halibut, and vegetables were canned in addition to lobsters. By 1854, canned goods from Eastport were being shipped to California. In 1850, there were only three canneries in the United States engaged in hermetically sealing fish, meats, fruits and vegetables. The supply of lobsters for the Eastport canneries came at first from the westward, probably beyond Penobscot Bay; the lobster fishery was not introduced in that vicinity until 1853, as it was supposed there were no lobsters in the vicinity. About 1870, owing to the fact that there was a noticeable scarcity of lobsters on portions of the Maine coast, American capitalists interested in the lobster canning industry began to establish canneries on the coast of the British Provinces. By 1880 the amount of American capital so invested exceeded that invested in lobster canneries on the coast of Maine.1 The canning of lobsters at Eastport continued to develop from 1855 to 1865, reaching its height about the latter year. Since that time it has declined in American waters, until it is no longer profitable to be carried on.

"As the decline in the supply was attributed to the canneries, a sentiment against them was gradually formed, and laws were enacted regulating the time in which they should operate and the size of the lobsters they should put up. Prior to 1879, they were permitted to pack lobsters at 1 Goode, Sec. V, Vol. II, pp. 687-689.

any season of the year, but they usually operated only between April 1 and August 1, and again between the tenth or middle of September and the first of December, the length of the season depending very largely upon the weather and the abundance of lobsters. In 1879, it was enacted that no canning of lobsters should be allowed from August 1 to April 1 following. In 1883, it was made illegal to can lobsters less than nine inches in length. In 1885, the canning season was fixed from April 1 to July 15. In 1889, the season was fixed from May 1 to July 1, and the minimum length of lobsters to be canned placed at nine inches. In 1891, this act was so amended as to make the season from April 20 to June 1. After 1880, the number of canneries gradually declined, until in 1895 the last one suspended the canning of lobsters, owing to the passage of a law fixing the minimum size at ten and one-half inches. This law went into effect July 1, 1895. As they could not afford to pay the high price demanded for lobsters of this size they were compelled to give up the business."

The following table shows the number of factories in operation, the quantity and value of fresh lobsters used, and

(Cobb, The Lobster Fishery of Maine, pp. 256 to 257.)

the number and value of cans of lobsters put up in the State of Maine, in the years 1880, 1889, and 1892.1

The lobster fishery was begun many years before the lobster canning industry arose, and has always been of greater importance. The coast of Maine always has been and is to-day the favorite locality in the United States for the pursuit of the lobster fishery. The present value of the fishery in New England is second only to the oyster fishery. Our account will be largely a sketch of the fishery as carried on in the State of Maine, which represents threefourths of the New England lobster industry.

As early as 1830 vessels from Boston and Connecticut visited Harpswell and probably other places in Maine for supplies of fresh lobsters. The industry flourished and in about a decade the carrying trade was begun by a resident of the place, an account of which follows:

"In 1841, Captain E. M. Oakes began to carry lobsters from Cundy's Harbor and Horse Island Harbor, Harpswell, to Mr. Eben Weeks, at East Boston. He was then running a well-smack, named the Swampscott, of 41 tons, old measurement. The season extended from the 1st of March until about the 4th of July, after which time the lobsters were supposed to be unfit for eating. The black lobsters, or shedders, were even considered poisonous. During this season of four months, Captain Oakes made ten trips, carrying in all 35,000 by count. He continued in this trade about six years, taking the combined catch of about five or six fishermen. At this period the smack Hulda B. Hall, 50 tons, of New London, Conn., Captain Chapell, was carrying lobsters from Cape Porpoise, Gloucester, Ipswich Bay, and occasionally Provincetown, to Boston, making 15 trips in the season of four months, and taking about 3,500 lobsters each trip. Captain Chapwell was supplied with

1 Part of the lobsters used in the Eastport factories come from New Brunswick. It is impossible to separate the two lots.