676 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



spawning places should be destroyed by the large nets, the number 

 remaining would still be very large. 



Although, as we have seen, the entire prohibition of this and of simi- 

 lar methods of fishing is scarcely justified, it is necessary that there 

 should be certain legally prescribed limitations ; economical and, still 

 more, administrative reasons demand the proper regulation of the coast- 

 fisheries, and certain rules as to the formation, rights, and duties of asso- 

 ciations. 



In this respect, the coast-fisheries, especially those carried on in bays 

 and inlets, do not differ much from the inland. In such places, the ex- 

 clusive rights of communities and landed proprietors have been respected ; 

 while, outside of such narrow limits, salt-water fishing has been free. 



Legislation has, therefore, directed its attention to the above-men- 

 tioned limited portions of the sea, although not to the same extent as to the 

 inland fisheries. As an example, we mention that, till the definite regu- 

 lation of the coast-fisheries, the use of torpedoes and other explosives 

 has been prohibited. 



With regard to the high-sea or open sea fisheries, other considerations 

 prevail. 



The productive power of the ocean, in its unlimited extent and its 

 unfathomable depths, is, with regard to its various processes and their 

 causes, far less known and far less accessible to human observation 

 than that of the inland waters. 



It is true that there have been complaints of the decrease in the 

 wealth of fish in the ocean ; and the injurious methods of fishing are 

 partly assigned as the cause. 



It is maintained that some species of the most valuable and numerous 

 salt-water fish, from which millions of money were formerly gained, 

 have been almost totally destroyed. This is certainly true of the gigan- 

 tic whales, which, even twenty or thirty years ago, were so numerous 

 on the coasts of the islands in the north of Scotland. It is likewise 

 said that a decrease in the number of sardines, cod-fish, &c, has been 

 observed ; while others deny this, especially as far as the sardines are 

 concerned. 



We consequently find two opposing views on the high-sea fisheries: 

 the one demanding complete freedom frorn all those limitations which 

 only quench the spirit of enterprise, and do not benefit the fisheries; the 

 other fearing that the erroneous idea of an unlimited and indestructible 

 supply of fish, the disregard of all protective measures, and of all reg- 

 ulations limiting the methods of fishing, will, in the end, prove disastrous 

 to the salt-water fisheries, in the same way as with our river and lake 

 fisheries, and with the oyster-beds, which have been almost totally 

 destroyed in some parts. 



Of late years, there have been many attempts to obtain a legal and 

 economical basis for the high-sea fisheries ; and seasons of protection, 

 artificial impregnation, and hatching, &c, have been spoken of. The 



