64 



THE IMPOVERISHMENT OF THE SEA. 



warm weather, and iucludes one year at least in the middle of the 

 period (1893) which was exceptionally favourable for the, reproduction 

 and growth of fishes on almost all our coasts. The influence of this 

 year should have increased the catches in the second half of the decade 

 as compared with the first, and there is some evidence that a favourable 

 effect was temporarily manifested. But the fact that, according to my 

 figures, even the occurrence of so exceptionally favourable a year in the 

 middle of the decade did not arrest the decline in the average catches 

 for more than two or three years tends to show that the rate at which 

 sea fishes reproduce and grow is no longer sufficient to enable them to 

 keep pace with the increasing rate of capture. In other words, the 

 bottom fisheries are undergoing a process of exhaustion. 



The following figures have been prepared to show the annual growth 

 of catching power and the average catch per smack-unit for the South 

 and West Coasts, if we assume the relative efficiency of steamers in 

 1898 to have been tenfold (instead of eightfold) that of smacks, and 

 if the efficiency factors for the previous years be multiplied to the same 

 extent {i.e. by 1-25). The other items, as given in Table H., II., have 

 not been changed. 



These figures are alternative to those given in Table VIII., p. 34, and 

 probably represent more accurately the amount of the fluctuations in 

 the trawl fishery during the decade, although the general features are 

 the same in both cases (see pp. 56, 57). 



In conclusion, I may state that if smack-owners and steamer-owners 

 will kindly assist me with detailed returns of the annual catches of 

 their vessels for individual years, or for any series of years, I will 

 gladly prepare a revised edition of the tables in this paper, based upon 

 such new information. Needless to say, the value of conclusions drawn 

 from calculations of this kind depends entirely on the basis of fact 

 underlying them. 



