THE IMPOVERISHMENT OF THE SEA. 9 



Companies ; the Manager of the Milford Docks Company ; Commander 

 Scobell Clapp, ii.n., Queen's Harbourmaster of Holyhead ; the Harbour- 

 masters of Neyland, Newlyn, Eamsgate, and Lowestoft ; Mr. Sanders, 

 of Brixham ; Mr. Shepherd, of Plymouth ; Mr. B. J. Eidge, of Newlyn ; 

 Mr. J. W. Turner, of Lowestoft ; Mr. E. L. Ascroft, of Ly tham ; 

 Mr. W. H. Ashford, Fishery Officer of the North-Eastern Sea Fisheries 

 Committee, Scarborough ; as well as by other gentlemen, the results of 

 whose assistance do not directly appear in the present communication. 

 I desire to express my cordial thanks to all who have co-operated with 

 me in the work. 



If errors, either great or small, should be detected in my methods or 

 calculations, I am alone responsible for them ; but I trust that they will 

 be found to be neither numerous nor serious. So far as the methods 

 are concerned, I have endeavoured throughout to base the conclusions 

 as far as possible upon grounds which are capable of verification, and 

 in matters where absolute precision was unattainable, to steer a moderate 

 course in the estimates adopted. 



The Experimental Evidence. 



The scientific evidence which bears upon the alleged depletion of the 

 trawling grounds is necessarily limited, since neither the Fishery Board 

 for Scotland nor the Marine Biological Association has been enabled to 

 carry out prolonged researches upon the deep-sea fishing grounds. 

 Nevertheless, the experiments made by the Scottish Fishery Board 

 in closing certain areas off the Scottish coasts against trawling opera- 

 tions have a distinct bearing upon the question. It was alleged that 

 these areas, as well as other inshore waters, had been depleted of fish 

 as a consequence either of general over-fishing or of the excessive 

 destruction of immature fish by trawlers. It was consequently expected 

 that the protection of these large areas for a term of years against 

 the ravages of trawlers would result in their gradual recovery and 

 in an increase in the quantities of fish upon the grounds. 



The areas were closed against trawlers in 1886, and during the 

 following ten years experimental trawlings within the closed and open 

 areas were conducted by the Fishery Board at frequent intervals, in 

 order to obtain a record of the changes induced by the prohibition 

 of trawling. It is clear that any general increase in the stock of fish 

 that could be definitely attributed to the prohibition of trawling would 

 also furnish a practical proof of the extent to which over-trawling had 

 previously reduced the productiveness of the same grounds. 



Moreover, the experiments bear indirectly upon the subject of the 

 present inquiry from the fact that they constitute the first extensive 



