INTERNATIONAL FISHERY INVESTIGATIONS 585 



is to be attributed to these improvements and not to the removal 

 of restrictions on the modes or seasons of fishing. 



But this expansion of the fishing industry soon led to a 

 reaction against the earlier policy of laisser /aire. As fishing 

 increased the older fishing grounds began, one by one, to be 

 less productive than they had been. It was not an actual 

 exhaustion of these areas with which the fishing industry was 

 confronted, but rather a decrease in the density of the fish 

 inhabiting them ; a decrease due, no doubt, to the greater 

 exploitation which they were undergoing. During the last 

 decade of the nineteenth century steam fishing boats were built 

 in great numbers, and it was found that whereas successful 

 "voyages" of fish could at one time be made in the home 

 waters — the North Sea, etc. — it was now necessary to go farther 

 afield. There is, of course, at the present time productive 

 fishing both in the North Sea and the other fishing grounds off 

 the British coasts, but nevertheless steam fishing vessels do 

 go now to the coasts of Iceland and to those of Spain and 

 Morocco to obtain the best catches. About 1895 this decreased 

 productiveness of the home grounds had begun to attract 

 attention, and many proposals were made for a renewal of 

 fishery restrictions on a large scale. 



The feeling in favour of the reimposition of fishing restric- 

 tions had indeed produced legislation before this time. In 1885 

 the Fishery Board for Scotland obtained an Act which enabled 

 it to close portions of the territorial waters against trawling — a 

 method of fishing which was then regarded as prejudicial to the 

 fishing grounds if practised on a large scale. Economic reasons 

 were also responsible for this legislation, but with this we have 

 nothing to do in the meantime. Again in 1887 and in 1889 the 

 Board obtained further powers, with the result that, by the end 

 of the latter year, not only the territorial waters off the coasts 

 of Scotland, but also large areas lying without these limits were 

 made maria clausa. In England the same thing took place. 

 The decade 1880-90, which witnessed so great an increase in 

 the activities of local authorities, saw also the creation of local 

 fishery authorities and the multiplication of fishery officials 

 and restrictions. In 1888 power was given to the county and 

 borough councils to form fishery committees, and these were 

 soon taken advantage of, so that at the present time there are 

 over twenty of these authorities on the coasts of England and 



