17 
and the facts, were embodied in their report to Parliament, 
‘which is now before me. Unfortunately, however, the 
shank net can only be worked in certain localities, owing to 
the nature of the sea bottom, and in other localities there is 
no resource but the trawl net. 
Shrimpers will not use a trawl when a shank will do. I 
cannot give you a better proof of this than that when I 
wanted to ‘get small fish for the Aquarium, and wished to 
use a trawl on grounds where a shank could be used, 
I had to hire the boat, &c., by the day, whereas if I 
‘was content to take such fish as the shank nets: got, I 
could go out as I liked, the men taking the shrimps. The 
reason assigned was’that we should catch too many small 
“fish to pay. If Mr. Dawson could invent something still 
better, it would be such a boon to the shrimpers that they 
‘would, I think, almost forgive him for the injuries they 
‘ suffer from now. | 
| Now, as to the results of hauls, the general impression 
from this one-sided report must be that shrimp-fishing is a 
miserable, petty business, carried on at a ruinous cost to 
‘other fisheries. Mr. Dawson does not tell the Committee 
that shrimping employs far more men,’’and brings in far 
more money to the fishermen and their families than the 
deep-sea fisheries off the Lancashire coast, and that, there- 
‘fore, it is an industry not lightly to be interfered with. But 
‘serious as this omission is,- it is-trifling compared with the 
C 
