OYSTER FISHERY LEGISLATION. 1025 



Fishery Commissioners have far greater powers than those 

 suggested to be conferred on the inspectors in our first 

 recommendation, the Irish Commissioners having the power 

 to close or open the beds at their discretion; whilst the 

 English inspectors would only have the power of opening 

 them if they considered they required working. 



The effect of the second recommendation would be 

 that ail dredging for the market for consumption would 

 cease for four months ; but to allow of the breeding estab- 

 lishments being stocked, deep-sea oysters would be dredged 

 for an extra month, i.e. from the middle of May to the middle 

 of June, and thus artificial breeding encouraged. There is 

 nothing in our suggestions that interferes with any inter- 

 national obligations, excepting that as already stated, 

 between the coasts of England and France dredging 

 cannot take place between the i6th of June and the ist of 

 September. 



If a natural bed was dredged during the summer 

 months, the oysters taken therefrom would be used for 

 breeding if the proposed laws were enforced. 



There is a consensus of opinion that this large industry 

 should be guided and protected. The value of oysters 

 annually consumed in England is enormous, yet there is no 

 inspector of oyster fisheries. 



We hope to see the time when there is a permanent 

 Fishery Commission, of which body the Inspector of Oyster 

 Fisheries will be a member ; the Inspectors of Salmon 

 Fisheries, an Inspector of Trawling Fisheries, and two of 

 Net Fisheries, would probably complete the Board. The 

 interests of each class of fisheries, which so often clash with 

 one another, would then be fairly represented, and some 

 attempt be made to prevent the immense waste of fish that 



now takes place. 



HH 



