202 THE POSITION IN 1920 



peace for another year. Leaders in the industry thought that 

 as soon as the trawKng fleet got back to full strength the 

 annual catch of English trawl fish would be not less than 

 1,250,000 tons, and that it would. probably be nearer 2,000,000 

 tons. These calculations were based on the assumption that 

 1,200 English trawlers would be landing an average of about 

 19 tons a week each. As a matter of fact 1,541 English trawlers 

 in 1920 landed 434,000 tons — an average ]9er ship of less than 

 tons a week ! The industry has been keenly aware that it 

 misjudged the situation in 1918. It is fairly evident that if 

 intense fishing were the main factor in diminishing the fish 

 population as a whole, and if an approximately even proportion 

 of infant fish survived their birth every year, the 1920 catch 

 would have been within a few thousand tons of the forecast 

 instead of 800,000 tons below it. The task before naturahsts — 

 many (if not most) of whom shared the optimism of fish catchers 

 in 1918 — is to explain in intelHgible terms the variations in the 

 strength of each tribe of fish on each of the great fishing grounds, 

 and to determine how far these variations are due to restrictions 

 on fishing and how far to forces outside human control. 

 The position can be summarized as follows : 



the steam fishing fleet has increased by about 11 per cent. ; 

 the catch has increased by about 9 per cent. ; 

 the value of the catch has increased by about 99 per cent. : 

 the landings per vessel have decreased by about 2*6 per cent. ; 

 the gross earnings per vessel have increased by about 74 per cent. ; 

 the cost of catching fish has increased (at least) by 150 per cent. 



So all is not well with the Great Fisheries in 1921. It is the 

 task of Science and Industry to diagnose the disease, examining 

 each symptom in close collaboration, and to find remedies. A 

 fishing voyage has always been, and will probably always be, 

 an adventure in which the risk of failure is great, for the seas 

 Avhich cover the fishing grounds are vast (though not ' trackless ') 

 areas — in which it is always easy to miss the prey. Obviously 

 every addition to our knowledge of the laws which govern the 

 wanderings of fish over and between the grounds diminishes 

 pro tanto the danger of a ' bad voyage '. The writer for the 

 last six months has hstened to men of business expounding 

 the doctrine that British fisheries can at this juncture be saved 

 only by diminishing the cost of production. He believes, with 

 many of them, that branches of Science other than biology 

 will be called upon to find, amongst other things, more efficient 

 marine engines and nets, and some preservative less costly 

 than ice. But, when all is said and done, no operation is more 



