Edible Lobsters.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20483, 8 December 1934, Page 12

Edible Lobsters .

Nature Notes

By

James Drummond , F.L.S., F.Z.S.

Jp*Oß SEVENTY YEARS, persistent ef

forts have been made to introduce the common European lobster into New Zealand. The first effort was by Mr A. M. Johnson. He had an aquarium and fishponds at Opawa, where he made many important experiments in acclimatisation. During a visit to the Old Country in 1864, he obtained twenty-six lobsters in Wales. He kept them in a tank on the vessel. Full of fight, they carried it to a finish until only one was left alive. Mr Johnson sold it to a first-class passenger. Twelve lobsters taken on board a vessel in England by Mr C. S. Farr for the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society could not stand the heat of the Tropics and died The first lobsters landed in New Zealand were shipped to Dunedin forty-one years ago. There were nine of them. All were liberated at the entrance to Otago Harbour. They were not heard of again. Several consignments of lobsters have arrived from England at the Portobello Marine Fish Hatchery. The females laid many eggs, and lobsterlings were liberated in Otago Harbour, but the results were unsatisfactory. • “ We are still trying to rear lobster fry in our tanks to a stage when they can deal with their enemies,” Professor \V. B. Benham wrote on Nevember 10 last. “In 1931 we liberated 200.000 youngsters in the sea but they were in such an early stage of development that they, doubtless, fell an easy prey to fishes and other enemies. “ As to results, I grieve to state that up to the present no undoubted lobster has been caught or seen in our seas. We are still trying to rear them to a stage when, we hope, they will be sufficiently strong or active to deal with all inimical conditions of life. In spite of a reduced Government grant, we keep the station in good order, but until our former grant is reinstated we are merely marking time.”