IN CERTAIN BAYS OX THE COAST OF DEVON. 



93 



10^ inches; 5d dabs, with a middle length of 9 inches; 18 pouting, 

 all under 7 inches ; 7 grey gurnards, with a middle length of lOf 

 inches; 1 tub, of Hi inches; 1 turbot, of 19 inches; and only 

 5 plaice, respectively 10|, Hi, 12, 12|, and 12^ inches in length. 

 It will be seen that the quantity of saleable fish in this haul, which 

 lasted four hours, under conditions apparently favourable, was extra- 

 ordinarily small. Too much importance must not, of course, be 

 attached to the results obtained by a single haul ; but I have given 

 the facts as they stand, because, so far as they go, they tend to 

 corroborate the statements again and again made to me by the fisher- 

 men. For it is alleged by these men, firstly, that, at this time of; 

 year, the fish are plentiful " in the bays " ; and, secondly, that they 

 are present in relatively small numbers "outside," though good catches 

 may be made by the large smacks which can venture far out to sea. 

 It is this, then, that constitutes the grievance, of which one result 

 is that trawling can scarcely be said to have entirely ceased in the 

 nominally closed areas. It would be premature, in this preliminary 

 report, to otter any opinion on the much-debated question of the 

 wisdom, or otherwise, of the legislation now in force ; but it may 

 perhaps be as well to point out that, assuming the statements above 

 mentioned to be correct, they do not, in themselves, furnish an argu- 

 ment against the closure of the bays. 



Setting aside, then, a consideration of the entire question till a 

 future occasion, I may now pass on to a brief statement of the facts 

 ascertained by trawling in the bays. In what follows no attempt 

 is made to distinguish between the hauls taken on the first and those 

 on the second trips ; still less between the individual hauls in the 

 same bays on either occasion. All that I have done is to add together 

 the numbers of each species of food -fish caught in all the hauls 

 considered in each bay, giving, at the same time, the middle length 

 in each case. The results are tabulated below : — 



