SHKIMPING AND PLAICE 55 



Do the operations of shrimp trawlers in the North Sea, either 

 on the British or the Continental littoral, seriously diminish 

 the stock of plaice ? The question remains unanswered. 

 Assuming it to be probable that the less valuable fishery 

 damages another (and infinitely more valuable) fishery, what 

 remedies can be applied ? 



1. Since any mesh which will catch a shrimp will catch 

 a young plaice, mesh regulation is obviously useless, though 

 sometimes attempted — in Essex, for instance. 



2. In the ' North Eastern ' and ' Eastern ' Sea Fishery 

 Districts the net must be raised and cleaned at least once in 

 half an hour. This regulation, ij enforced, would certainly save 

 many plaice fry. But enforcement is probably not easy.^ 



3. It has been suggested that shrimping should be prohibited 

 altogether during seasons in which plaice (and other valuable) 

 fry are most abundant on the shrimp-grounds. This might 

 conceivably amount to stopping shrimping altogether. But as 

 far as the North Sea is concerned it does not appear that the 

 shrimp-trawling question has really been investigated systemati- 

 cally, and the proceedings of the last meeting of the Inter- 

 national Council contain no reference to it. 



Shrimp-trawling produces a hardy, handy race of open boat 

 sailormen. Officials are rightly sohcitous that their livelihood 

 should not be interfered with. But the effect of shrimp- 

 catching in the North Sea on the stock of plaice is a factor which 

 is probably ascertainable, and which should be ascertained. 



Note. — Since this w^as written Professor Garstang has sug- 

 gested to the writer that we should not only transplant plaice, 

 but attempt to rear the plaice to be transplanted. If that idea 

 materialized, the shrimp-trawls would be the obvious source of 

 supply. Their plaice fry would be purchased from them alive, 

 and the interest of the shrimpers in keeping ' a little dab alive ' 

 would be maintained by the most effectual stimulus in the world. 



' A journalist who went out shrimping this summer (1920) and recounted 

 his adventure in the Manchester Guardian said that the trawl was hauled about 

 once an hour. 



