880 NORTH SEA INVESTIGATIONS. 



II. On the Destruction of Immature Fish in the North Sea. 



Introductory. — The subject has unfortunately become so familiar 

 in recent years that it is unnecessary for me to refer, except very 

 briefly, to its previous literature. The most important contributions 

 have been those by Professor Mcintosh, in the Eeport of the Trawling 

 Commission, 1884, by Dr. Wemyss Fulton in the Annual Reports of 

 the Scotch Fishery Board, 1890 and 1891, and by Messrs. Bourne 

 and Cunningham in previous numbers of this Journal. I have 

 contributed what information I could collect during the Royal 

 Dublin Society's survey on the west coast of Ireland in the Scientific 

 Proceedings of that Society, 1892, pt. 4, and at the recent meeting 

 of the British Association the subject was dealt with in a joint paper 

 by Mr. Calderwood, Mr. Cunningham, and myself. 



In the present paper I have attempted to put in as brief a form 

 as possible the information collected during the Association's investi- 

 gations in this district, together with suggestions as to what appear 

 to me to be the best methods of remedying the evil. 



The methods of fishing in use by boats from Grimsby and its 

 neighbourhood are as follows : 



i. Be am -trawling, by steam and sailing smacks, from 60 to 100 

 tons each. 



ii. Long-lining by similar vessels. 



iii. Shrimp-trawling by small sailing vessels in and about the 

 Humber estuary. 



Other vessels are employed in the deep-sea oyster fishery, and a 

 certain number of small boats are engaged in whelking. 



The following shore fisheries are carried on along the southern 

 shore of the Humber below Grrimsby : 

 i. Stake-netting. 

 ii. Ground-seining. 

 iii. Shove-net shrimping, 

 iv. " Seine " shrimping. 



I propose to glance very briefly at each of the above industries 

 in so far as they are concerned in the destruction of immature fish. 

 Beam-trawling. — The conclusion arrived at by Mr. Bourne, as a result 

 of observations made in the Plymouth district, was that no material 

 damage was done by the above industry {supra, vol. i, No. III). 

 Such is certainly not the case in the North Sea district. 



From my own experience on board of trawling vessels on most 

 of the North Sea grounds, and from the recorded observations 

 of a number of trawling skippers, who have been kind enough 



