50 TKANSPLANTATION AS A EEMEDY 



annual addition to the stock of North Sea plaice worth £34,000 

 and left the experimenters in possession of a vessel saleable at 

 £10,000 at the end of five years, it is clear that Garstang's 

 position was unassailable. And in point of fact no one has ever 

 challenged his conclusions. 



No Action Taken 



But no one did anything ! In 1905 Garstang had shown how 

 to improve the plaice fisheries. But for a variety of reasons, 

 ranging from universal fear of Germany to the fact that fisheries 

 did not interest politicians, no attempt was made to apply his 

 remedy, and up till 1914 the plaice landed seem gradually to 

 have become smaller. 



The Present Position {1920) 



Then came the cyclone in 1914. As a result perhaps of more 

 or less complete closure of the feeding-grounds against fishing 

 in war-time, they are, at present, well stocked with large fish. 

 Science and Industry and Officialdom have time to look round. 

 All are agreed that the resuscitation of the stock is only tem- 

 porary, and that the big fish will soon be ' fished out ' again. 

 Meanwhile Science is determined to discover whether young 

 transplanted plaice grow as quickly on crowded grounds as 

 they did in the previous period of depletion. And meanwhile 

 Experience in the shape of Mr. Neal Green (trawler owner, 

 fish-curer, and author of Fisheries of the North Sea) has revived 

 a suggestion originally made by Garstang in 1906. 



Is it possible for the nations — or our nation — to pay the 

 Danish fishermen with their ' well smacks ' to transplant small 

 fish to the Dogger instead of putting them on the market ? 

 There are ' difficulties ' in the way of course, and difficulties 

 quite likely to baulk official action. Provisional arrangements 

 made by Garstang to this end in 1906 might easily have suc- 

 ceeded, but failed, apparently, for lack of official support in this 

 country. 



The writer is inclined to think that this idea might be worked 

 as a commercial transaction by the (now) organized trawling 

 trade of Great Britain. At any rate, when the large plaice begin 

 once more to be scarce on the feeding-grounds, the British Deep 

 Sea Fishing Fleet, thanks to Science, knows one potential 

 remedy. If that is not tried in time the fleet will have only 

 itself to blame. It prides itself on its position as the premier 

 fleet in the world. So it must lead, and, if necessary, leave other 

 fleets (and statesmen) to follow. 



