THE IMPOVEllISHMENT OF THE SEA. 63 



corresponding averages derived from a distribution of the total catch of 

 fish among the local vessels alone. For 1889 my estimate of the local 

 trawlers belonging to ports on the South and West Coasts (see Table H, 

 p. 69) yields 46 steamers and 546 smacks — a total of 776 smack-units. 

 For 1898 I estimate 100 steamers and 525 smacks, i.e. 1,325 smack-units. 

 The average catch per unit yielded by these figures is 36'9 tons in 1889 

 and 41-5 tons in 1898. As there is no doubt, however, that the actual 

 catching power should include a considerable number of North Sea 

 vessels, it is quite clear from these figures that the error introduced by 

 my estimates of their numbers does not account for the low average 

 catches as compared with those of the Grimsby smacks ; for not only 

 are the averages for the early years increased to a small extent only, 

 but the slight evidence of a fall in the averages which is yielded by the 

 figures in Table VIII. is altogether swept away by the exclusion of the 

 North Sea vessels from the total catching power. It is therefore 

 certain that the relative catching power of steamers and smacks on the 

 South and West Coasts is not the same as on the East Coast, i.e. the 

 actual catches of smacks on the former coasts are not so great as those 

 of the East Coast vessels, and the factors which are applicable to the 

 East Coast statistics are inapplicable to those of the South and West 

 Coasts. 



I have indeed been assured by smack-owners of Western ports that 

 the relative catching power of steamers on these coasts is now at least 

 ten to one as compared with smacks, but from absence of positive data 

 as to the actual weight of fish landed I am unable to give the precise 

 ratio. Nevertheless the establishment of this point is of great import- 

 ance, for it will be seen from a study of Table H that any increase in 

 the relative efficiency of steamers over smacks in this region must have 

 the effect of depressing the average catches to a greater extent in the 

 later than in the earlier years of the decade, owing to the great increase 

 in the proportion of steamers to smacks during the decade. This in- 

 crease holds whether we consider the local vessels alone or the totals 

 of the local vessels and the estimated numbers of North Sea visitors. 

 The consequence is that the slight fall in the average catches shown in 

 Table VIII. for the South and West Coasts is less than the fall which has 

 actually occurred,* so that for these coasts there is no escape from the 

 conclusion that during the past ten years there has been an indubitable 

 fall in the average catches of the trawling vessels per unit of catching 

 power, though of less extent than for the East Coast. This proof, which 

 is largely independent of personal opinions, of the progressive im- 

 poverishment of the fishing grounds has all the more force when it is 

 remembered that the period has been characterised by increasingly 



* See ligures on next ^jagc. 



