FISHING STATIONS— ENGLAND. 267 



supply from the tiirbot-nets along the coast might 

 possibly be explained by the number of these fish 

 caught by the trawlers; but the diminution is said 

 to have also taken place, and to an enormous extent, 

 in the supply of haddock and cod. Now, the great 

 haddock fishing ground for the trawlers is near the 

 Dogger Bank, and the catches there are as large as they 

 ever Avere ; the number of cod caught in the trawl is 

 utterly insignificant : fifty trawlers would not have 

 caught as many of these fish in a week as the Staithes 

 fishermen say a few of their boats used frequently to 

 catch in a day. But this difficulty is attempted to be 

 got over by saying — and it has been repeated over and 

 over again — that the trawlers destroyed the spawning 

 beds of the cod and haddock, and so caused the diminu- 

 tion. Ten years ago there was not much known on the 

 subject, but M. Sars has since shown that the spawn of 

 these fishes floats, and therefore there can be no 

 destruction of their spawning beds. 



It is a remarkable circumstance that nearly thirty 

 years ago turbot became so scarce near North Sunder- 

 land, close to Holy Island, that the turbot-nets were 

 given up. At that time trawling in the North Sea was 

 only just beginning from Hull and that part of the 

 coast; and the trawlers have never worked near the 

 place where the decrease of turbot was said to have 

 been greater than even at Staithes. It is evident, 

 then, that we have yet a good deal to learn about 

 what attracts or drives away the fish to or from any 

 particular locality. 



Hartlepool and Sunderland are places for shipping 

 rather than fishing boats. At the former port many 

 of the fishermen some years ago gave up their pursuits 

 in order to become pilots, the increasing trade causing a 



