390 NORTH SEA INVESTIGATIONS. 



by being caught in these nets, and if unsaleable"^ would probably be 

 returned. 



For turbot, brill, and sole I would advocate the adoption of the 

 biological standards. They are all rather hardy forms, and it appears 

 that immature brill and such immature turbot as are found on our 

 own coasts are chiefly caught on certain banks where the intricate 

 nature of the ground renders short hauls a necessity, so that they 

 could be returned to the sea in good condition, as indeed the smaller 

 of them usually are at present by many fishermen. With regard to 

 soles, I do not think that many undersized fish are caught by deep-sea 

 trawlerSjt and the substitution of a size limit for the present prohi- 

 bition of the use of a fish-trawl in the Humber would do away with 

 the anomaly of a law which is not enforced. There is a strong- 

 feeling amongst inshore fishermen that the bye-law alluded to is un- 

 equal in its operation, since it oifers no check to the destruction of 

 small fish on off-shore grounds, only accessible to large boats. Hence 

 a regulation as to the size of fish landed is perhaps preferable to 

 one based solely on territorial conditions somewhat imperfectly under- 

 stood. 



An objection which I have heard urged against any scheme for 

 keeping our trawlers off the eastern grounds is that the summer 

 sole trade in the North Sea would thereby be left entirely in the 

 hands of foreigners. I think that this is, perhaps, rather over- 

 stating the case, but anyhow I cannot see that it furnishes any 

 excuse for the present enormous destruction of small plaice and 

 turbot, whilst it is at least possible that the abstention of our own 

 fleet from these grounds in the summer would result in a corre- 

 sponding increase in the number of soles in the localities where that 

 species congregates in the winter months. I have no knowledge of 

 the migrations of soles, but the Great Silver Pit is equidistant from 

 the Humber and the nearest eastern ground, and as it is the nearest 

 point at which similar physical conditions can be attained, it does 

 not seem improbable that the winter supply of soles in the Pit is in 

 part recruited from the east side of the North Sea. 



Another objection is that boats of British nationality are not the 

 only ones engaged in the small fish trade, and it is true that during 

 the summer months a number of German, Dutch, and Danish boats 

 are occupied in catching small plaice. But they are all of small 

 tonnage, some of them only open boats ; and I understand that from 



* The possession, as well as the sale, should be prohibited, to guard against the possible 

 danger of small fish being utilised as manure when the fisherman is also a farmer in a 

 small way. 



t The small soles caught on the Dogger and on the Dowsing are really solanettes 

 {Solea minuta). 



