OUR SEA FISHERIES. 213 



where it could not be prosecuted. I believe, however, 

 that very lately some modification of this state of 

 things was introduced by the Board ; but a serious 

 blow had been dealt to the prosperity of the fisheries 

 and the fishermen, which they will take years to 

 recover from. In Galway Bay, the same outcry 

 was raised by the Claddagh men but lately, because 

 better and larger boats than they possessed were 

 trawling in the bay. In such cases, it is requisite 

 that the Board should use the utmost discrimi- 

 nation in the rules and boundaries which they lay 

 down, as well as in taking evidence upon all such 

 matters. 



It cannot be doubted, from the evidence afforded 

 in the able papers so often referred to, that the 

 Irish fisheries are capable of improvement to an 

 extent now hardly dreamt of, and that a mine of 

 wealth, sufficient to maintain the peasantry in afflu- 

 ence all round the coasts of Ireland, lies almost at 

 their doors, now, comparatively speaking, unworked 

 and unproductive. 



There is another circumstance, besides the wasteful 

 destruction of small fish, which is gradually but 

 surely affecting our coast fisheries. Wherever mining 

 operations are carried on, the rivers and brooks are 

 first poisoned by them and all the fish killed ; and the 



