320 TKAWLING IN BAYS ON THE SOUTH COAST OF DEVON. 



which appear to be represented almost entirely by immature and 

 unsaleable individuals. 



Dabs require separate consideration. They are very abundant in the 

 bays, and, except in Start Day in December, a very large proportion of 

 them is immature and unsaleable. But the dab is a small fish, which 

 at no time enjoys a very exalted commercial value, while its flesh 

 deteriorates very rapidly. Furthermore, it is commonly regarded by 

 naturalists as a serious competitor in the matter of food with the more 

 valuable kinds of flat-fish, in the company of which it is usually 

 taken. Unlike the plaice, it is not by any means confined in its 

 immature condition to any particular ground, and shows hardly any 

 discrimination in the locality in which it spawns ; while in addition to 

 consuming large quantities of organisms, which might be more profitably 

 employed in the architecture of young plaice and soles, it is practically 

 omnivorous. Probably in virtue of this adaptability of feeding and 

 habitat the dab continues to abound. At least, I have never heard it 

 seriously contended by any responsible observer that the species has 

 been greatly reduced in number by over-fishing. That it may have 

 decreased in average size is quite possible, since although, as our records 

 show, the length may occasionally reach 15 inches even in this district, 

 13 inches is much more frequently the size of the largest individuals 

 met with. It is not unlikely that protection might result in slightly 

 increasing the average size, and so in slightly raising the market value 

 of the fish, but it is more than doubtful whether any useful end would 

 be served by any sort of means specially directed to the preservation of 

 this species. In giving evidence at an enquiry held during the present 

 year with regard to a bye-law prohibiting the use of " tuck-nets " in 

 Start Bay, I had occasion to speak of dabs in the same sense as appears 

 above. Mr. Fryer, in his report to the Board of Trade, considered that 

 my remarks with regard to dabs went a long way towards condemning 

 the bye-law. The lesponsibility is his, not mine, for it is one thing to 

 say that a dab needs and deserves no protection^ and another to hold 

 that small plaice ought not to be preserved for fear that the dabs should 

 benefit by the same protection. The question of " tuck-nets " is outside 

 the scope of our present enquiry. In the case of trawling in the bays 

 our records sufficiently prove that all other considerations must be 

 subordinated to the conditions affecting plaice. I should hesitate to 

 advise that dabs are so deleterious that their extermination in the bays 

 would justify the great destruction of small plaice that must ensue if the 

 process were carried out in the course of ordinary professional fishing. 

 In the good old days of which we hear, when valuable fish are said to 

 have abounded, plaice must be supposed to have been able to maintain a 

 successful competition with dabs, and food-fish generally with worthless 



