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knowledge, and there are others who grant the desirability of 

 getting the information, but say that it is a bad way to do so 

 by removing fish from the district, which ought to be considered 

 the property of the fishermen. With regard to the latter it is 

 obvious that such forget how small the sample removed for 

 scientific work is compared with the fishermen's catches, and how 

 small the fishermen's catches, though significant, are compared 

 with the population supported by a district of some 200 square 

 miles. 



With reference to the former contention, a few further remarks 

 may be made. To begin with, we have to note that the inshore 

 waters are rich in immature fish, and receive also mature fish, 

 including many of the important species of the North Sea. During 

 the winter migration these do not leave the territorial waters to 

 any great extent, and the area and the fish are reserved for the 

 fishing operations of the inshore fishermen. Our results, together 

 with the statistics, go to show that the protection tends to pre- 

 serve as large a stock as the area may be said to be able to support. 

 It has had during the last quarter century its ups and downs, 

 but as a whole it has improved, and it is reasonable with all the 

 facts before us to conclude that the protection has done and is 

 doing good. This is what the Northumberland Sea Fisheries 

 Committee wanted to know, and thus from an administrative 

 point of view the work has been a success. It is important to 

 know that the young fish do not leave the region of the Northum- 

 berland coast, with some exceptions which have been pointed out, 

 that the survivors from stage to stage remain in the district. This 

 is a gratifying result, not merely from the view of administration 

 but to the inshore fisherman. 



The trawl fishermen, excluded from the territorial waters, 

 obtain the benefit of the growth and protection afforded by the 

 inshore waters, for the fish after attaining the size of maturity 

 leave the district. They migrate to the north and to deeper 

 water. This concerns us in two ways. First, it shows that the 

 strip of territorial waters of the North Eastern district contributes 

 to the extra-territorial waters of the Northumberland region 

 as the Northumberland inshore waters do to those of Scotland. 

 There is a complete inter-relationship between the coastal and the 

 deeper North Sea in succession all along our coast, and the 



