REMEDIES FOR THE DEPLETION 



57 



the catch — i. e. from mid- April to mid- August. It would not 

 pay to send a ship out to catch only the one or two boxes of 

 soles which could in these months be picked up on the grounds 



*--20M,les- 





t>. 



EiG. 4.— THE SMALL PLAICE GROUNDS 



Sketch-map showing the area which the trawler- owners hoped to close during 

 the months of April to August hy the imposition of a size limit in 1908 It is 

 from the middle of Ajaril to the middle of August that small plaice predominate 

 on these grounds. 



south of the Horn Reef. It did pay to go for these soles if the 

 skipper was sure of eight or ten boxes of small plaice to add as 

 a makew^ eight. But if the small plaice were unsaleable — as 

 they would be with a universal 8-inch hmit — no trawlers would 

 work the ground. The result would l)e an automatic and almost 

 complete closure of the small-plaice grounds during the period 



