64 
60 large steam trawlers, 100 to 160 tons burden, fishing with 
nets go feet wide and more on the otter trawl system, as 
compared with the 30 to 50 feet nets on the old beam trawl 
principle, independent of weather and tides, fishing with 
double sets of gear, one set always down while the fish 
caught by the other are being sorted and the nets cleared, 
carrying crews of eight to 18 men, and steam power for 
hauling nets and doing all the hardest work, have found it 
paid to land their fish at Fleetwood for certain markets. One 
firm alone, to give an idea of the size of the fishing industry, 
had no less than 37 of these boats landing their fish there. 
But these boats are not fishing on the grounds protected (?). by 
Professor Herdman. ‘They are equipped to go further afield 
and reap the rich harvest of the deep sea beds. They fish 
off Iceland, off the Hebrides, anywhere; a thousand miles is 
no object to these grand productions of modern practical 
science. Again, the boats fishing for mackerel and herring 
off the Scotch coast now land a great deal of their fish at 
Fleetwood, and these great fisheries are so much more profit- 
able that more and more capital is finding its way into them. 
We might, of course, expect that only 44 boats fishing where 
120 to 150 fished years ago, the individual boats would get 
more fish, as they would be able to pick out the best bits of 
ground for themselves, and such is the case, though if it were 
not for the haddock even'this would not be so; but that it 
will not pay to increase their numbers is evident, or they 
