208 director's report. 



The objects are — 



1. To prepare a history of the North Sea Trawling Grounds, 

 comparing the present condition with the condition say twenty or 

 thirty years ago, when comparatively few boats were at work. 



2. To continue, verify, and extend observations as to the average 

 sizes at which the various food fishes become sexually mature. 



3. To collect statistics as to the sizes of all the fish captured in 

 the vicinity of the Dogger Banks and the region lying to the 

 eastward, so that the number of immature fish annually captured 

 may be estimated. 



4. To make experiments with beam trawl nets of various meshes, 

 with a view to determine the relation, if any, between size of mesh 

 and size of fish taken. 



It will be seen at once that, for one person, a very great amount 

 of work is involved, and that before reliable data can be collected 

 on all four points considerable time must elapse. In Mr. Holt's 

 early reports, therefore, it has been thought advisable not to treat 

 each heading in detail, since one season of the year may be more 

 suitable for collecting information on one point than on another, 

 but rather simply to state the results of work accomplished. 

 During this, the spawning season, for instance, most attention must 

 necessarily be given to heading No. 2 ; hence, in Mr. Holt's present 

 report, the relation of size to immaturity is principally mentioned. 



Already the information collected shows many points of interest. 

 From the work of a similar natui'e, carried on by Mr. Holt himself 

 in Ireland, from Dr. Fulton's results, published in the Scotch Fishery 

 Board's Reports, and from observations made at Plymouth, it is 

 obvious that a very considerable variation takes place in the sizes at 

 which fishes become sexually matui'e in different localities ; and it is 

 probably not too much to say that as surely as legislation will have 

 to be resorted to for the preservation of fish until they have spawned, 

 so surely will the matter have to be studied for each coast separately. 

 In localities where there is no foreign element introduced, or where 

 only English boats fish in territorial waters, the Sea Fishery District 

 Committees will naturally be looked to for the proper conduct of 

 affairs, and it will therefore be highly necessary that each com- 

 mittee should understand the guiding principles of natural history 

 involved ; but where, as in the North Sea, foreign fishermen com- 

 pete with those from this country, International Legislation must 

 of necessity be brought about, otherwise the outcry, at present so 

 loudly heard, will not cease, and the market for little fishes which 

 have not spawned being kept open, the fishing grounds will be 

 depleted, and the east coast industry ruined. 



I have made reference to the Fishery Conference, and its resolu- 



