NORTH SEA INVESTIGATIONS. 



387 



Dabs are sometimes rather more numerous, and occasionally a 

 number of small whiting are taken. Cottus bubalis and young 

 sprats are of frequent occurrence. Turbot, brill, and sole are never 

 much more numerous. Towards the end of the summer one or two 

 fine soles are sometimes taken. The catch always includes a number 

 of shore-crabs, which are promptly returned, as they damage the 

 shrimps in the net and basket. 



It will be seen that the bulk of the injury falls on the plaice, 

 and I need not say that the annual destruction of the young of this 

 fish must be enormous. How far the prolonged existence of an insig- 

 nificant fishery, so baneful to the objects of an industry of national 

 importance, can be justified is a question that must be discussed else- 

 where. 



Shrimp-seining. — The shrimp " seine ^' of Cleethorpes is in reality 

 a fine-mesh trawl, with a mouth about 18 feet wide, which is kept 

 open by means of a pole. Two short wooden beams, heavily loaded 

 at the lower end, serve to keep the wings upright, and to separate 

 the head and ground ropes. The whole afi^air is attached by the 

 bridles to the axletrees of a small one-horse trolley, driven by the 

 fisherman, and might be better described as a cart-trawl. 



Seven such " seines " are owned in Cleethorpes, and work the 

 same grounds as the shove-nets, and as they difi^er from the latter 

 only in being rather more efiicacious, and thus making larger catches 

 both of shrimps and of small fish, they may be classed in the same 

 category. The only notable difference is in the method of dispos- 

 ing of the catch which in the present instance is shot wholesale 

 into a box on the cart, and not sorted until the fisherman gets home. 



