28 THE IMPOVERISHMENT OF THE SEA. 



The figures representing the weight of fish sent inland by rail from 

 the port of Grimsby have been provided by the General Manager of the 

 Great Central Eailway Company. They are exclusive of exported fish, 

 and correspond with the figures annually published by the Board of 

 Trade in their Statistical Tables and Memorandum, except for the years 

 1886-90 inclusive, for which years the Board of Trade's figures yield 

 slightly lower "averages per unit" than mine, viz. 77, 73, 76, 72, and 72 

 respectively. The difference is insignificant, since both series of figures 

 show practically the same progressive reduction in the annual averages. 



The Bailway Company's returns, however, exaggerate the true pro- 

 duct of the Grimsby fisheries in two respects. They include a con- 

 siderable quantity of herrings and mackerel lauded at the port by 

 Lowestoft, Scottish, and other vessels from the drift-net fisheries which 

 are not pursued by Grimsby boats ; and they also include the weight of 

 boxes and ice, etc., in which the fish are packed for transport — items 

 which it is well known are by no means inconsiderable.* From calcula- 

 tions which I have made, I estimate that about two-fifths of the total 

 weight sent inland by rail should be deducted in order to cover these two 

 sources of exaggeration. The inclusion of these extraneous items does 

 not, however, affect the validity of the returns for my present purpose, 

 which is merely to determine whether the official returns exhibit a 

 constant or a declining catch per fishing boat per annum. 



In order to establish this point I have taken each fishing steamer 

 registered at the port to be equivalent in catching power to four sailing 

 vessels ; and in order to avoid any suspicion of having exaggerated the 

 catching power in the later years of the period, I have purposely neg- 

 lected all advances in the efficiency of the steamers due to increased 

 tonnage or the adoption of new gear, such as otter trawls (cf. pp. 46-52). 



In spite of these omissions, it is seen in the table that the averages 

 per fishing unit have steadily diminished from 1886 to the present time. 

 Owing to the increase of steam vessels and the decline of sailing vessels 

 during the period, the amount of this diminution would be shown to 

 have been very much greater if account had been taken of the relative 

 increase in the catching power of steamers during the period. The 

 results provide a conclusive confirmation of the general accuracy of 

 the conclusions drawn from the smack-owners' returns in the preceding 

 section of my paper. 



A table of a somewhat similar character to the above, for the years 

 1878 to 1892, was submitted by Mr. Alward to the Select Committee in 

 1893, and is printed in their report (p. 9, § 216). The general character 

 of our respective figures is the same, but Mr. Al ward's figures yield 



* The lish occasionally laiukd by foreign trawlers also tend to swell the returns (cf. 

 Holt, this Journal, iii. p. 411). 



