OF THE GRIMSBY TRAWIL FISHERY. 431 
when once the small fish have been caught on these grounds, there 
is very little likelihood of any of them surviving, if returned to the 
sea. Consequently, if after eliminating all fish which are of less 
than 10 inches, there remain enough to be a source of profit to the 
fisherman, the only effect of prohibiting the sale of the smaller ones 
would be to ensure the fouling of the grounds with their carcases, 
and to cause a great waste of food with no corresponding benefit. 
The ordinary catch of a boat working the Hastern grounds 
consists of a large number, it may be several hundred, of boxes of 
plaice from 15 down to 8 or even 6 inches ; a lot of turbot, nearly 
all immature ; and a number of brill, mostly mature, but still of no 
great size. If the right grounds have been worked, there may be 
from half a box to about two boxes of soles. On certain of the 
grounds the soles are the avowed object of the fishery, but now- 
a-days they are not nearly plentiful enough to pay the expenses of 
the voyage, much less to secure a profit. It is the small plaice 
which pay the expenses, and if we could stop the sale of these we 
might assure ourselves that no one would go near the grounds ; but 
if we only stop the sale of those of less than 10 inches, we shall 
leave a quantity quite sufficient to pay the expenses; thus, though 
the profits of the voyage may be a little less, the fishery will 
go on as before, and the same quantity of small plaice, turbot, 
brill, and soles will be destroyed as before, though the consumer 
will get fewer of them. Where does the advantage come in ? 
If, on the other hand, we raised the limit for plaice to 13 inches, 
as I have proposed to do, we shall cut off so large a proportion of 
the catch that it will not be worth while for boats to go to the 
Hastern grounds. At the same time we shall ensure that the small 
plaice which annually migrate from these grounds to the Dogger 
shall not be intercepted on the way, since there are not enough fish 
of other sorts on the migration track to attract vessels thither if the 
small plaice were unsaleable. J have shown that the proportion of 
plaice under 13 inches on the off-shore grounds of the North Sea is 
inconsiderable, at any rate in the summer, and consequently what- 
ever waste might be caused by the size lmit would be of little 
account. The limit need only be enforced during the spring and 
summer, say from March 14th to September 30th, as for the 
remainder of the year the small fish are not to be found on the 
Hastern grounds, while those which have migrated in the autumn 
are mixed up on offshore grounds with larger fish, and could only 
be sorted with difficulty. 
I contend, and I do not see how it can be denied, that by the 
mere imposition of a size limit of 13 inches on plaice alone from March 
14th to September 30th we should leave the Eastern grounds entirely 
