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| York Island lobster fleet 1894 |
Maine celebrated when the state legislature banned lobster processing in 1895. Huh?
Why? Because thanks to the new national railroads, postal services and telegraphy, the national & international market for processed Maine lobster meat exploded out of control in the 1890s and threatened to drive lobsters into commercial extinction.
A hundred and twenty years later, and processing is back. The processed lobster
meat may be frozen or refrigerated today, not canned, but the same
impossible enforcement problems faced by Maine's 19th century marine
wardens will apply today, as more and more processors open up, and as
market demand exceeds production.
Read below excerpts from Maine Sea and Shore Fisheries Reports from between 1901 and 1908 describing what happened, and why the Maine legislature and Governor acted and shut all lobster processors in the state down.
(Note: back then, lobsters were
measured from tip of snout to fork of the tail, so the legal sizes
mentioned in these reports are larger than today's carapace-only measure.)
(1) Maine Sea and Shore Fisheries 1901-1902. Page 26-27
"Lobsters....This
fishery should have more than a passing notice. It is worthy of
protection. It is a home industry. As each year rolls around more men,
more boats, more traps, are being added to the business. It is unlike
any other fishing. There is no salting, no curing, no waiting for a
market, no anxiety about a market. They are staple goods as gold from
Klondike mines.
"Prior to '95 we had many canning factories on our coast, whose only business was to can lobsters from April 15 to July 15 upwards of nine inches in length. The lobster business was almost annihilated. The can lobster filled almost every grocery store from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The people of the great West knew only canned lobster. Prior to '95 there had never been a live lobster shipped beyond the western border of New York state.
"Lobsters had become scarce on our coast owing to the constant drain upon the small lobsters for factories. One of the methods of destruction in the canning days was the habit of carrying from three to five inches lobsters before
the close time was off, crowding from 3,000 to 5,000 into space not
large enough for 2,000, and on the 15th of April when the factories
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"could
secure them, more than half of the small fish were dead. It is said
that one million were lost in this way each spring. We had but five
wardens then and they were very poorly paid to look after the business. I
have only shown a part of the willful destruction under the old law to
compare with what has been done under the law of '95, when factories
practicallywent out of business, never to return, I hope.
"The 10 and 1/2-inch law is the best for the protection of the young lobsters we have ever had. The fishermen claim that it is the salvation of the lobster industry, but it does not suit everyone - the violators or the summer tourists.
"The
business has increased since '95. The number of men has increased
four-fold ; the traps and gear have increased; the prices received have
increased; pounds from four in '95 to twenty-three in 1902. Steam smacks
have taken the place of sailing smacks; rapid transit and refrigerator
cars are carrying our lobsters all
over our country.
Each year the demand is greater, and the question is -
Can we ever supply the demand? Answer - Yes. Good liberal
appropriations, great care and attention will increase the supply of lobsters and all will be benefited thereby.
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"Now take the lobster law. There are certain clauses in our lobster law which make it very hard to enforce. The clause 'mutilated, uncooked lobsteris prima facie evidence of their being short,' while mutilated cooked lobsters although short are all right. I have found in several instances mutilated cooked claws and tails of lobsters. If not less than the required length where were the bodies of these lobsters ?
"The lobster dealers may say it will hurt their business to make a law stopping the sale and transportation of lobster meat, but it should be done. What is the lobster meat that the dealers sell? It is nothing more or less than 'dead' lobster which
they pick out of their cars every morning and boil and pick out the
meat. Now this is no guessing, but something that I have seen for years.
"Another way the dealers get rid of a good many dead lobsters is
by selling them to the hawkers or peddlers, and they will take all they
can get. In certain localities the fishermen will break the claws and
tails from the bodies and throw the bodies away. At their homes someone
will have the water hot and in a few minutes the claws and tails will be
cooked, so the wardens cannot take them if they can get into their
houses, which they can't do without a search warrant which is about
impossible to get." Letter from Warden George E. Cushman.
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"Warden Isaac H. Snow states in his letter: "I would have the lobster law changed so that wardens can take mutilated lobsters cooked as well as uncooked."
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Page 40 THE CANNING INDUSTRY.
"From the introduction of the lobster canning process at Eastport, about 1842, dates the beginning of the extensivecanning interests of the United States in all its branches. Lobster canning was
first attempted in the United States at Eastport shortly after 1840,
and was made successful in 1843, the method finally employed having been
borrowed from Scotland, which country is said to have learned the process from France.
For
the successful introduction of the same into the United States we are
indebted to Mr. Charles Mitchell, who at that time resided in Halifax,
N. S., who learned his trade of John Moir & Son of Aberdeen,
Scotland, the first Scotch firm, it is claimed, to put up hermetically
sealed preparations of meat and fish.
"Mr.
U. S. Treat, a native of Maine, appears to have been most active and
influential in starting the enterprise and introducing canned goods into
the markets of the United States. Mr. Treat, with a Mr. Noble of
Calais, and a Mr. Holliday, a native of Scotland, started the business
of manufacturing hermetically sealed goods in Eastport in 1842,
experimenting with lobsters, salmon, and haddock. Their capital was limited, appliances crude, and many discouraging canning
"In
1843 they secured the services of Mr. Charles Mitchell, who moved to
Eastport. After Mr. Mitchell's arrival in Eastport no further difficulty
was experienced in the bathing or other
Page 40
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"preparations of the lobsters,
and a desirable grade of goods was put up, but found no sale, as such
preparations were unknown in our markets. Mr. Treat visited our large
cities with samples, but was unable to make sales except on consignment.
In 1846 Mr. Treat purchased the island between Eastport and Lubec,
which has ever since been known as Treat's Island. In 1854 to 1856 we
find him shipping canned lobsters to California. In 1850 there were but three canneries in the United States. In 1856 J. Winslow Jones of Portland commenced canning. In 1843 a one-pound can of lobster sold for five cents, three and one-half pounds, live weight, were required to make a one pound can. No lobsters weighing less than two pounds were then used for canning.
"Concerning
the period from 1850 to 1880 sufficient information has not been
collected to furnish a connected history of the progress of lobster canning.
"In
1880 there were twenty-three canneries on the coast of Maine, and over
forty in the British provinces controlled by United States capital. The
combined cash capital invested in the twenty-three factories in Maine
was $289,834.
"In
addition to the cannery buildings, the several Portland firms which
were operating canneries had factories in that city for the manufacture
of tin cans and wooden cases, and also warehouses for the storage of the
finished product.
"Of the twenty-three , canneries in this State in 1880 ten prepared lobsters only, six, lobsters and mackerel, one,lobsters and clams, six, lobsters, mackerel and clams, and one of the last also put up salmon, fish chowder, and clam chowder.
"In 1879 the factory at Southwest Harbor began to put up lobsters in
the shell for export trade. They were boiled, the tail bent under the
body, and then packed in cylindrical tin cans twelve and fourteen inches
long, put into the cans dry, bathed afterwards and vented in the usual
manner. These lobsters were used chiefly for garnishing dishes for the table. In 1879 Mr. J. W. Jones estimated the average weight of lobsters taken for all purposes in Maine 1 ½ pounds; N. S., 2 pounds; Bay of Chaleurs, 2 ½ and Magdaline Islands, 3 pounds.
In 1879 one small steamer was used for collecting lobsters for the factory at Castine. The smacks of that time had an average
Page 41
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valuation
of about three hundred and fifty dollars ($350). The price obtained by
the fishermen in 1880 average about one dollar per hundred (count) for canning lobsters. It is reckoned in 1880 that 9,494,284 pounds oflobsters were
used at the Maine canneries, valued at $94,943, from the fishermen, and
the number of men supplying the same was not far from 1,200, and
nearly, if not quite all of these, were also interested in selling to
market smacks, which yielded much greater profits.
From the 9,494,284 pounds of live lobster used by the canneries 2,000,000 pounds of canned lobsters, valued at $238,000 were put up on the coast of Maine. No account of the total production of canned lobsters on
the coast of Maine during past years is at hand for comparison with
those of 1880, but the fact of a very great falling off in the
production from year to year is well known, and can be proved by the
statistics of small sections. It is stated that the total production of
1880 was greatly exceeded, in ten years previous to that date, by that
of a few canneries alone.
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"Until 1842 lobsters were not in sufficient number at Eastport to induce people to fish for them. The canning oflobsters having
commenced at Eastport in that year, smacks were sent to the western
part of our State for their supplies. In 1855 they first began to fish
extensively for lobsters about Eastport.
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"In
searching for information in relation to the production of our State, I
find that the first report of the Fish Commissioners of Maine was made
in 1867, the year that I first set foot on Maine soil. From that time forward to 1884 the lobster is never mentioned in any report of the State Commissioners, notwithstanding the canning industry
was going on at that time. Salmon and fresh water fish seemed to have
had most of the attention of the Commissioners during that period.
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"There seems to be no way to compare the production of today with that of the seventies and eighties, for, during the canning period
from 1855 to 1890, the U. S. Fish Commission's Report is the only
source from which any reliable information is obtainable. In that year,
1880, there were sold to smacks and canners in Maine 14,234,182 pounds
of lobsters. At that time they say only lobsters weighing 2 pounds were used for canning.
We will figure them as weighing 2 pounds each, which will make the
catch of that year 7,117,026 in count, and these were caught by the use
of 104,456 pots, which shows an average catch to each pot of 68 lobsters.
Thus it is shown at that time our production was far ahead of today.
From about that date the catch decreased very rapidly until in 1895,
when as I have said elsewhere, laws were enacted to stop the wholesale
slaughter which was being made by our canneries, for at that time they
were canning those nine inches long, and even smaller.
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The canning business,
which received the blow given by the legislature of 1895 when it
repealed the nine-inch law died in that year, and with the death of the canning industry the lobster business
of the State commenced to revive. I consider that in 1893 the business
was at its lowest ebb, and since that date, according to statistics, thelobster supply has steadily but slowly increased.
"Our
protective laws at the present time, if observed, are adequate; the
transportation facilities ample, and the business generally, appears to
be in a healthy condition among the dealers. If it is not so with the
fishermen then they have only themselves to blame. The laws were enacted
at their instigation, and wholly for their benefit, and it lies wholly
with them, whether or not they are observed, for if they never save
anything but a legal lobster the
law never can be violated, no smacksman will be able to purchase one, no
dealer can buy or sell one, no person can get any but a legal lobster to eat.
"In short, unless the fishermen for whom the short lobster law was enacted, save short lobsters nobody
in our State can violate it unless by importing from some other state
or country. It would seem to anyone not familiar with fishermen and
their movements that this would be a simple solution of the whole
problem, when by observance of the laws by them ( for whose benefit the
law was made, and who know as well as you or I that every violation made
by a fisherman is an injury to his own business as well as to his
brother fisherman's) that to observe the law would be the only thing he
would do.
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"Many years ago one of the leading industries connected with the fisheries were the canning factories. These flourished at a time when lobsters were very plentiful, and the regular market price was one cent a pound to the factories and three cents apiece for large lobsters for
private use. The fishing season then extended from March to rough
weather in the fall, no fishing being done during the winter months.
"These factories preferred small lobsters, and it would be impossible to estimate the enormous number of young lobsters used by them even in a single season.These factories were the first cause of a large decrease in the annual catch. A law was finally passed making the legal length for canning the
same as for ordinary use and it was hoped that the decrease would
cease: but the closing of the factories did not stop the destruction of
small lobsters. neither did it give the proper protection to the seed-bearing lobster.
The fishermen still continue to
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"use the small lobster,
even using them for cunner trap bait and hen-food. They also continued,
after it became illegal to do so, to rub the seed from the spawn of
female lobster, and sell them to the lobster buyers with the other market lobsters.
These practices were not only common, but the usual methods of most
fishermen. Is it any wonder that the catch became smaller and smaller
each year until corrective measures were taken?
"Finally our legislature
passed a law making it illegal to have in possession any lobster below
a prescribed length, ten and one-half inches, now three and
three-fourths inches body measure; and made a general appropriation for
the Department of Sea and Shore fisheries, which provided funds, for a
warden service to enforce the law.
"Their experience from using lobsters of that size has been that they are practically exterminating the species. At
a meeting recently held in Boston. which was attended by commissioners
and representatives of the several states, it was unanimously
"agreed that the Maine legal length, method of measurement, etc., are the best to adopt."
