THE IMMATURE FISH QUESTION. 73 
(2) Prohibition of fishing on certain grounds. 
(3) Prohibition of capture in certain seasons. 
(4) Mesh regulations. 
The proposal to establish a size limit offers many difficulties. If 
the limit of 10 inches proposed by the National Sea Fisheries 
Protection Association were applied rigorously to all coasts of the 
kingdom, it would not bear very hardly on deep sea trawlers in the 
south-west. It would mean throwing overboard about 8 per cent. of 
the plaice caught, and as these are the smallest fish, it would not be 
a very great loss of earnings. Stillit would be some loss, and would 
be strongly opposed by the fishermen. Then, again, the fish thrown 
overboard would not all be alive. Trawling in winter-time in strong 
winds is such rough work, and so much attention has to be given to 
mending and shooting the trawl and navigating the vessel, that the 
fish often cannot be picked out from the mass of stuff brought up by 
the trawl until it has been on deck some time. It is making a 
great demand on the crews of trawlers to expect them to carry a 
measure and measure their fish ; and if they were forced to do it, they 
would think more of the importance of not throwing overboard any 
fish which they could legally keep than of returning the fish to the 
sea alive and in good condition. Fishermen, as a rule, do not 
understand the conditions necessary to the life of a fish. They 
almost always fail to bring fish alive when requested and paid to do 
so, because they do not handle them with enough care, or supply 
them with water properly. 
On the other hand, Mr. Holt has proved that the Conference limit 
of 10 inches would not prevent fishing in the eastern grounds of the 
North Sea, the destruction of small plaice on which gave rise to the 
present agitation. No higher limit would be tolerated by the south 
coast trawlers. It must be remembered that it is not practicable to 
enforce the biological limit. On the south-west coast the limit is 
15 inches, but a large proportion of the fish under this size are 
mature, and they are certainly marketable. To enforce this limit 
would deprive the trawlers of about 50 per cent. of the total number 
of their plaice, and probably dislocate the industry. Mr. Holt 
believes that a limit of 14 or 15 inches would be enough to prevent 
fishing on the eastern grounds of the North Sea, but he tells me 
that in winter a good many fish of this size are taken on other 
grounds, and suggests enforcing the restriction only in summer. It 
is of course true that the imposition of a size limit would prevent to 
a great extent the capture of small plaice by shrimping and seining 
in inshore waters. But there is a great deal of destruction carried 
on in shrimping and seining of plaice which are so small as to be 
