FISHING NETS, WITH SPECIAL EEFERENCE TO THE OTTER-TRAWL. 565 



ability to catch different sizes and, therefore, a greater variety of 

 fish.* 



The utility of these two forms of nets as complementary to trawls 

 can hardly be overestimated. They reach ground the trawl cannot 

 touch, and might be used in any part of the North Sea. Incidentally, 

 it may be mentioned that the United States Fish Commission steamer 

 Albatross had twelve different kinds of (/ill-nets and two trammels as 

 part of its fishing apparatus.f 



There are various other forms of fixed oiets, such as the stow-net % 

 (" Ankerkuilen " of Holland) for sprats and whitebaits, which are used 

 in tidal waters or streams. They are not likely to be of any service in 

 deep-sea fishing, so that further mention of them is unnecessary. 



The peculiarity of the preceding nets is that they are, for the most 

 part, stationary, so that the responsibility for being caught rests with 

 the fish themselves. The traps laid are exceedingly subtle, and are the 

 result of generations of experience of the habits, habitat, and even 

 the structure of the fish ; but when the traps are once laid man retires, 

 and the fish do the rest. In the case of movable nets man does not wait 

 for the fish to come to him, and, not content with devising ingenious 

 instruments for their capture, pursues them with all his might and 

 drags them in by main force. The two methods of fishing are therefore 

 strongly antagonistic, and cannot both be pursued on the same ground 

 at one and the same time. 



It is by means of movable nets that naturalists — in Europe at any 

 rate — have done their work in the past, and the tendency at the present 

 time is to continue doing so. This is founded on the notion that 

 movable nets may be made to give a quantitative measure of the fish in 

 the sea. 



The principle of the movable net is simply that of collecting together 

 all the fish within a certain compass and dragging them to land or into 

 a boat. Both these methods seem to have been pursued in the earliest 

 times of which we have definite records by Phoenicians and Greeks. It 

 is from the latter, indeed, that we derive our modern word seine or sean^ 



* The gill-net is made like an ordinary drift-net. The trammel is usually from 30 to 50 

 fathoms (60 to 100 m.) long and 1 to 2 fathoms deep. The middle layer is just double 

 this when stretched out. The meshes of the outer layers are from 4 to 5 inches from 

 knot to knot, and those of the middle layer about 1 inch. The foot-rope is weighted 

 according to depth and strength of tide. The price varies according to material used 

 and length. A trammel of 50 fathoms made of cotton and finished completely costs £12. 

 If the inner wall only is of cotton and the two outer of hemp, about £8. These may 

 be obtained from the well-known Bridport makers (South Dorset), Messrs. Hounsell or 

 Messrs. Gundry. 



t Tanner, Bull. U.S. Fish Commission, xvi., 1896. 



:;: See "Wileocks, loc. cit. ; Holdswortli, loc. cit. ; Hoek, Ferslag Staat Ned. Zeevisch, 

 1896. 



