UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES OF MARINE FISHERIES. 29 
fresh quarters, and so year after year the smacks have to go 
further afield. This is particularly the case with the sole fishing 
industry. It is not long since the papers were full of accounts 
of a splendid sole fishing ground which had been discovered in 
the Bay of Biscay. It was thought a wonderful thing that the 
enterprise of fishermen and owners of trawlers should be so 
great that they would go as far afield, but now we hear little of 
the Biscay fishing ground, and, instead, it is the coast of 
Morocco! Huge steam trawlers, fitted with every modern 
appliance, including an ice-plant capable of producing two tons 
of ice daily, are raking the bottom of the sea off the coast of 
Africa to supply the British markets with soles. Where will 
they go next? Haw long will it be before all the available 
fishing grounds will have been spoiled? When this does occur 
people will wake up to the necessity of doing something. The 
supply of sea fish poured into this country daily is greater than 
it has ever been, and consequently it is cheaper, but it would be 
a great mistake to suppose that because this is the case fish in 
the sea are more plentiful than ever. It simply means that the 
fishing industry, instead of being carried on by sailing boats 
using antiquated appliances, is now in the hands of men who 
have scientifically perfected their methods of capture so that the 
harvest can be reaped as clean on the sea bottom as can a field 
of oats on land. Only it is all harvest, there is no seed time, 
and the inevitable result must be disaster to an industry which is 
of vast national importance. We are within measurable distance 
of a scarcity of marine fish. This, of course, means high prices, 
and thousands of people will be deprived of one of their most 
valuable forms of food. So long as the present state of pros- 
perity continues, people will not listen. When the result of 
blind activity and enterprise is the impoverishment of our 
fisheries, there will be a host of voices raised in condemnation. 
The old question of “Why was not something done in time ?’’ 
will have to be answered, and the inevitable judgment formed 
by those who suffer will be “culpable negligence.’’ It is little 
good looking round to see who is responsible. The matter is 
not one for private enterprise, neither are the Fishery Boards 
to blame, for they would gladly do more, but they cannot. 
_ Again and again their voices have been raised in warning, but 
who will take heed? The Government cannot justly be blamed, 
