8 THE IMPOVERISHMENT OF THE SEA. 



and steam, registered at the port, from 1886 to 1809 (from returns 

 provided by the Great Central Eailway Company). 



3. The weight of fish annually landed by trawlers at the Lowestoft 

 fish-docks, from 1883 to 1808, compared with the gross number of 

 trawling vessels landing at the port (from returns provided by the 

 Great Eastern IJailway Company). 



4. The total weight of bottom fish annually landed on the various 

 coasts of England and Wales during the decade 1889 to 1898, com- 

 pared with detailed estimates of the number and catching power of 

 the deep-sea trawlers and liners during the period (from the Board of 

 Trade returns and numerous other sources specified below). 



The results obtained from all these various independent sources of 

 information display a melancholy unanimity. Whatever the period — 

 whether ten years or thirty years — and whatever the extent of the 

 fishery — whether the smack fisheries of Grimsby and Lowestoft, the 

 general fisheries of Grimsby, or the entire bottom fisheries of England 

 and Wales, either as an entirety or according to the seas frequented — 

 the average return for each vessel engaged in the fishery, or for each 

 equivalent unit of fishing power, is shown to fall from year to year 

 with none but insignificant fluctuations in the rate of fall. 



We have, accordingly, so far as I can see, to face the established 

 fact that the bottom fisheries are not only exhaustible, but in rapid and 

 continuous process of exhaustion; that the rate at which sea fishes 

 multiply and grow, even in favourable seasons, is exceeded by the rate 

 of capture. The rate of exhaustion is shown to be different for different 

 species of fish. The more valuable flat fishes, plaice and prime fish, 

 show the most marked signs of diminished and diminishing abundance. 

 These differences should obviously be noted, and if possible still 

 further elucidated, in order that the difficulties in the way of remedial 

 measures may be intelligently anticipated and met. 



In conclusion, it is with much pleasure that I acknowledge the 

 assistance which I have received in the preparation of this paper from 

 numerous individuals and official representatives, without whose co- 

 operation it would have been impossible to undertake certain parts of 

 this revision of the fishery statistics on anything like so extensive a 

 scale. To Mr. G. L. Alward, of Grimsby, I am under a particular 

 debt of gratitude, not only for the information placed by him at my 

 disposal, but for the frequency with which he has sacrificed time and 

 labour, probably at great personal inconvenience, to respond to my 

 inquiries. I have also been aided by Mr. W. E. Archer, H.M. 

 Inspector of Sea Fisheries, and his colleagues at the Board of Trade; 

 by Mr. J. W. Towse, Clerk to the Fishmongers' Company ; by the 

 General Managers of the Great Central and Great Eastern Kailway 



