586 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Wales, administering some three hundred by-laws. Each authority 

 has its own code of regulations, which may, or may not, have any 

 relation to those in force in contiguous areas. Practically no 

 form of fishing may be pursued anywhere round the coasts of 

 this country unless regard is paid to the local by-laws. Some- 

 times this system of minute regulation is rather ridiculous. In 

 one of our estuaries, for instance, a fisherman must not take 

 mussels which are less than 2J in. in length, but if he 

 crosses an imaginary line he may take the same shell-fish if 

 they are not less than 2 in. in length. On some parts of the 

 coasts of Wales seaside visitors have had to submit the toy 

 nets employed to catch prawns in the rock pools in order 

 that the local fishery officer might satisfy himself that the latter 

 were of the regulation size of mesh. No doubt some of these 

 regulations are of utility, but it is still the case that most of 

 them were founded, not on the results of precise investigation, 

 scientific or otherwise, but only on the basis of local opinions 

 and prejudices. There is, again, no doubt that a large number 

 are not of any utility, and there is a growing disposition to 

 inquire whether this system of minute regulation — a system 

 which is both costly to the ratepayer and vexatious to the 

 fishermen — has been justified in its results. 



But while the growth of fishery restrictions during the last 

 twenty years has been comparatively rapid, our knowledge of 

 the natural conditions under which fishes live in the sea, and 

 even of the economic conditions of the fishing industry, has 

 accumulated very slowly. It is apparently the case that those 

 who in this country have been responsible for the elaboration 

 of fishery restrictions have not thought it necessary to base 

 these on a statistical and scientific investigation of the local 

 conditions of the industry for which they were legislating. The 

 history of one of the largest of the English sea fishery com- 

 mittees is interesting in this respect. This authority began its 

 career with an almost full complement of by-laws and a staff 

 of fishery officers. With increasing experience it added to its 

 code of regulations and its staff, but it was only after some time 

 that it attempted scientific investigation, and then such work 

 was regarded as a luxury, if not a fad. Then, under the stimulus 

 of criticism, doubts began to arise as to the utility of the by- 

 laws, and the stringency of these was gradually relaxed, and 

 finally scientific investigation was begun. It seems incredible, 



