THE IMPOVEKISHMENT OF THE SEA. 3 



incomplete knowledge, we are unable to state confidently what the 

 precise effect of any given type of weather has been upon the various 

 species of fish, except, perhaps, in years of unusual severity or warmth. 



The complaint of the fishermen, however, for many years past has 

 been that the bottom fisheries have been annually and steadily diminish- 

 ing in return for the same labour expended upon them ; and, so far as 

 the abundance of flat-fish alone is concerned, this view was adjudged 

 correct by the Select Committee of the House of Commons which sat 

 in 1893. 



Professor Mcintosh has recently expressed his dissent even from this 

 conclusion, and in a remarkable book * boldly adopts the view that 

 man's operations and the means of capture at his disposal are in- 

 sufficient to affect the perennial abundance of sea-fishes. He says 

 (pp. 239, 240) : "A calm survey of the situation shows that the cry 

 concerning the annual diminution of our fish-supply has been dispelled 

 by the institution of statistics ; that the alleged destruction of spawn 

 has no basis in fact ; that the destruction of immature fishes is common 

 to all classes of fishermen, and nowhere is proved to have resulted in 

 the ruin of any sea- fishery; that because the first five years of the 

 decade 1886-95 had a higher average than the second in the Fishery 

 Board's experiments, it therefore followed that diminution of the fishes 

 had occurred, and called for further closures beyond the three-mile 

 limit to remedy it, is shown to rest on insecure data ; that the closure 

 of the three-mile limit has failed to increase the number or the size of 

 the food-fishes, is ineffective in regard to the supply of the public, and 

 is a continual source of friction and expense, while falling short of the 

 expectations of those who clamoured for it; that the evidence given 

 before the Trawling Commission of ' trawling out ' certain grounds in 

 three years with a small vessel carrying a small trawl, the working 

 period being about three days a week for three months in autumn, is 

 at variance with experience ; that the statements to the effect that 

 fishes captured by the trawl are inferior as articles of food to the 

 general public cannot be maintained either by science or by a know- 

 ledge of the markets; that the Garland's work shows the compara- 

 tively small destruction of immature fishes of value, even though she 

 often trawled where no commercial ships would ; that the perusal of 

 masses of fishery statistics shows the constant series of changes that 

 take place on every area, yet the fisheries are not destroyed ; that such 

 a fishery as that for sparlings in the estuary of the Tay has from time 

 immemorial been very much as it is ; that though salmon and sea-trout 

 abound in the sea, men derive little knowledge of their presence by 

 either trawl or hook, and yet many of both must come in their way." 



* The Resources of the Sea. London, 1S99. 



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