366 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



Some of the difficulties in dealing with the Irish sea 

 fisheries have been well exemplified at Waterford. 

 Trawling has long been carried on there by small boats 

 of 2 or 3 tons, within the harbour, but great hostility has 

 been shown towards any attempts on the part of large 

 vessels to work within the headlands, and violence has 

 been resorted to by the native population in order to 

 put a stop to their proceedings. The difficulty in get- 

 ting local crews for the large vessels led to English 

 fishermen being employed ; but the strong feeling 

 against them induced them sooner or later to return 

 to their own country. The complaints of the small 

 trawlers of the manner in which the large vessels with 

 their bigger nets destroyed the spawn and young fish, 

 as was alleged, resulted in a very remarkable byelaw 

 being made by the former Commissioners of Irish Sea 

 Fisheries, by which fishing boats of inore than 5 tons 

 measurement were forbidden to trawl within a line 

 drawn between certain points on the two sides of the 

 harbour. Within those limits the right of trawling 

 was reserved, for small boats — no matter how small, 

 but for none larger than 5 tons. We must presume 

 that the Commissioners in this instance silently ignored 

 the alleged cause of complaint, and legislated against 

 what was the real one, although it was perhaps not 

 expressed in words — namel}^, the competition of large 

 trawls with small ones. In fact, for the sake of quiet- 

 ing the turbulent portion of the fishermen, the others 

 were, to a great extent, kept out of their way. As the 

 large trawlers draw 8 or 9 feet water, it is clear that 

 they could not work in the shoal places where the 

 young fish are mostly found. The privilege of doing 

 the particulai" mischief complained of was therefore 

 reserved to the small boats, which being able to trawl 



