4.23, EXAMINATION OF THE PRESENT STATE 
cross-bars to ensure rigidity. In their own interests many of the 
fishermen have the wires three pennies’ thickness (about 3% inch) 
apart, and wish that this gauge might be made compulsory, as the 
use of finer sieves tends to lower the market price of the prawns. 
Until I had made the experiment I did not suppose that small 
flat-fish would be likely to pass through such a sieve, but as a 
fact they do, and thus practically all that are too small to have 
been picked out in the first sorting by hand find their way back 
into the river, in company with the smaller prawns or shrimps. 
Fortunately it is absolutely essential to the profitable conduct of 
the fishery that all these operations should take place in so short a 
time that the shrimps can be got into the pot alive, and that the 
latter should be as free from rubbish as possible. JI have known 
Thames shrimpers to boil the whole hotch-potch of shrimps and 
small fish together, and sort them afterwards, but the Humber men 
always sort them first. 
Thus we see that the interests of the shrimp-trawler compel him 
to return all unsaleable fish to the water as soon as possible. But, as 
it may occur to the reader, we have seen that the mere fact of being 
caught in the trawl is frequently fatal to fish in deep-sea operations, 
and it may be asked—is not this equally the case in shrimp-trawl- 
ing? My answer, after careful experiment, is in the negative, and 
for the following reasons. 
The shrimp and prawn-grounds are none of them of great extent, 
they are intricate, and can only be worked with the tide, so that 
short hauls are an absolute necessity. I do not suppose a haul often 
much exceeds two hours, and I consider one hour to be about the 
usual period.* The ground is mostly clean, or the boat is brought 
up if the net gets among clay banks or much rubbish, and the men 
are obliged to haul. ‘The shrimp-mesh is very fine, and very stiff, 
the cotton being heavily tarred, and it is rather a rare thing to find 
small fish jammed amongst the meshes. A larger mesh, more lable 
to open and shut, would probably be more injurious. As a fact I 
find that the fish come on deck alive and vigorous, unless they happen 
to have been spitted by the prow of a prawn or nipped by a crab. 
No doubt the most delicate forms are the whiting and cod, 
especially the former, and if either are allowed to lie on deck they 
soon succumb. If pitched overboard at once they swim off 
apparently none the worse, since the depth of water is not sufficient 
to cause loss of control over the air-bladder on being brought to the 
surface. I have made experiments to test the vitality of these fish, 
and find that even in the unfavourable conditions of a tub of 
* If the hauls ever exceed an hour it is in contravention of the Committee’s bye-law on 
the subject. 
