NORTH SEA INVESTIGATIONS. 101 
take a good time; but as a matter of fact the take on this occasion 
was so worthless that the fishermen, after picking out the few sale- 
able fish, would, no doubt, have shot the remainder straight over- 
board. Indeed, both shrimping grounds might be said to be 
effectually closed, at the time we visited them, by their very 
unproductiveness. 
It must be remembered, also, that whenever any number of 
small flat-fish occurred, the majority of them were always common 
dabs, and I would call attention to the opinion expressed by Fulton 
(Rep. 8. F. B., 1890) that it is questionable whether any benefit 
is to be derived from protecting the young of this species, since it is 
never of great value, and is a most severe competitor with fish 
of greater value, e.g. soles and plaice, in the matter of food. 
In any case it appeared to me that by confining the operation of 
the closure to the shrimp grounds and the Tetney prawn ground, 
enough would be done at that season of the year to practically 
eliminate the risk of destruction of immature flat-fish, whilst the 
legitimate conduct of the industry would be hardly at all affected 
thereby. 
My recommendations to the Fisheries Committee, in reporting the 
results of the operations under their auspices, were accordingly made 
on the above lines, though it was expressly stated that they could 
only claim to hold good for the period during which the investiga- 
tions were made. ‘he Committee subsequently repealed their former 
bye-law, and substituted one which granted the extension of the open 
season prayed for in the petition to which I have alluded. ‘The use 
of the shrimp-trawl is therefore now lawful in the waters with which 
the bye-law deals from the 1st March to the end of October. Though 
it has not appeared, from the results obtained during last March 
(1893), that either prawns or shrimps are to be had in sufficient 
numbers to make their pursuit profitable so early in the season, I 
have little doubt that the measure will be found on the whole satis- 
factory, once the enforcement of the existing prohibition against fish 
trawling shall have removed the imputation which the conduct of a 
few individuals now allows to rest on the whole fraternity. 
For my own part, I have always advocated legislation which deals 
with the size of fish landed, so far as flat-fish are concerned, rather 
than with the kind of trawl in which they are caught. Since I am 
satisfied, from the whole of my experience of the Humber fisheries, 
that the absolute lack of mature fish in the river would preclude the 
existence of a legitimate plaice fishery, whilst flounders and dabs 
are neither sufficiently numerous nor valuable to attract pursuit by 
themselves, the imposition of a size limit would in effect limit the 
use of fish-trawls to a short period in the summer when there are some 
