AUG 17 1900 



The Impoverishment of the Sea. 



A Critical Summary of the Experimental and Statistical Evidence 

 hearing upon the Alleged Depletion of the Traivling Grounds. 



By 



Walter Garstang, M.A., F.Z.S., 



Naturalist in charge of Fishery Investigations under the Marine Biological Association 

 late Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Introduction ...... 



Summary ...... 



The Experimental Evidence, 1886-95 

 The Statistical Evidence — 



I. Annual Catches of Grimsby Sailing Trawlers, 1860-92 . 

 II. Official Statistics of the Grimsby Fisheries, 1886-99 



III. The Lowestoft Trawl Fishery, 1883-98 



IV. The Entire Bottom Fisheries of England and Wales, 1889-98 



1. Statistics of Bottom Fish 



2. Statistics of Fishing Boats 



§ i. Number of Trawling Smacks 



§ ii. Number of Steam Trawlers 



§ iii. East Coast Trawlers in Western Waters 



§ iv. Number of Liners 



3. Relative Catching Power of Trawlers and Liners 



§ i. The Traioling Smack as a Unit of Catching Power 

 § ii. Relative Efficiency of Steam Beam Trawlers 

 § iii. Otter Traivls on Steam Travelers . 

 § iv. Relative Efficiency of Liners 



4. Total Catching Power of Bottom Fishing Boats 



5. Average Annual Catch per Unit of Catching Power 



6. Reconsideration of the Methods and Results 



PAGE 



1 



21 

 27 

 29 

 31 

 31 

 33 

 36 

 39 

 40 

 43 

 43 

 44 

 45 

 49 

 52 

 54 

 54 

 57 



Introduction. 



In the present essay I have endeavoured to bring together the most 

 precise and reliable evidences available as to the recent and present 

 condition of the great trawl and line fisheries of England and Wales. 

 Both these fisheries depend for their success upon the same funda- 

 mental conditions, viz. the abundance of fish upon the bed of the sea. 

 They may rightly, therefore, be grouped together under the single head 

 of " bottom fisheries," in contrast to the fisheries for herrings, mackerel, 

 and pilchards, which are " surface fisheries." From the nature of the 



NEW SERIES.— VOL. VI. Xn. 1. A 



