THE SEA FISHERIES 283 



buoy. The vessel, which is motor driven or a small 

 steamer, now goes down tide paying out this warp until 

 it is all out. The net is now put overboard and the ship 

 sails round in a semicircle paying out the other warp until it 

 has returned to the anchored buoy. The two ropes are then 

 taken on board and the net is hauled in by a special winch. 



It is found that with this net the fish caught are in much 

 better condition than those caught by trawls. In fact 

 the plaice are generally in quite a lively condition and are 

 kept alive on-board in tanks by Danish fishermen, amongst 

 whom the net has been in use for many years. 



This seine is also used for catching haddock, but in this 

 case the wings of the net are generally shorter than those 

 of the plaice seines. 



The pilchard seine was a net used off the Cornish coast 

 for catching pilchard in the days when this fishery flourished. 

 When a shoal was sighted by special watchers or " hewers " 

 from prominent points on the coast the fishermen rowed 

 round it paying out the net as they went. This is very 

 similar to a drift net, and when the circle is completed the 

 pilchard are enclosed within a wall of netting. This 

 circle of netting is then towed slowly towards the shore 

 until the weighted foot-rope is on the ground. The fish 

 are thus cooped up without any way of escape and the 

 fishermen can remove them at their leisure by means of a 

 smaller seine known as a tuck net. This net is very deep 

 and when the fish are surrounded the bottom edge of the 

 net is drawn towards the surface so as to form a bottom 

 and the pilchard are then scooped out in baskets. When a 

 very large shoal has been encircled in the pilchard seine 

 the process of removing them in the tuck net has been known 

 to take several days. A tuck net is also used in inshore 

 waters for catching sprat. 



The purse seine is a net used extensively in America for 



