72 THE IMMATURE FISH QUESTION. 
estuaries and in shallow water. In consequence of this fact we see 
that at Plymouth the principal destruction of small fish is caused by 
inshore fishing, such as the seines in the Hamoaze. Inshore trawl- 
ing and large ground seines used at Teignmouth and Dawlish doubt- 
less are equally destructive. It must be remembered that this 
Plaice: January 1st to March 11th, 1893. 
From Seines in Hamoaze, &c. 
MALEs. FEMALES. 
Length. No. examined. = 
Mature. | Immature. Mature. Immature. 
6 inches a 0 | (0) 0 1 
Te 255 25 (0) | 9 O 16 
Sp 11 10) 2 O 9 
De 5, 1 0 0 0 1 
JOR; 0 (0) (0) 0 (0) 
1 LY he a 1 (0) 0 0 1 
WON 5; (0) 0 1) (0) O 
39 0 11 0 28 
Total number examined Z é ; 5 eho) 
Smallest c 0 : : c . 63 inches. 
Largest . : é : - : 5 
Immature males. : ‘ 5 a ala 
Fr females . : : : . 28. 
destruction is not remunerative to the men who practise it. Plaice 
of 7 or 8 inches long fetch a low price, and are poor food even as 
compared with merry soles of the same size. There can be no doubt 
that trawlers working in shallow water, in the bays and close to shore, 
take a large proportion of small and immature plaice. On the south- 
west coast there are no flats which extend far out from the shore into 
extra-territorial waters, and I know of no ground where small plaice 
are taken in excessive proportion to large except in territorial 
waters. It has been proposed by the Devon Fisheries Committee to 
exclude beam trawling in great part of their territorial waters 
altogether. This would of course put an end to the destruction of 
small plaice at present effected by those boats in those waters. But it 
would not affect the destruction, which is due to other kinds of 
fishing, in particular to ground seining. 
The measures which might be carried out for the protection of small 
plaice may be of the following kinds. 
(1) Prohibition of landing, possession, or sale of fish under a 
certain limit of size. 
