66 
the probable total, and we are certain that the limit in 
power and capacity of steam trawlers has not been reached. 
They are built larger and more, effective each year. Those 
built ten years ago are almost obsolete, and I venture to 
say those of to-day in another generation will be looked 
upon as antiquated. 3 
What then is to be done with our Irish Sea fisheries if, 
like our wheat fields, they can no longer be useful to supply 
the main wants of the population? They must supply the 
minor luxuries, shrimps, cockles, and comparatively small 
fish for those who love a tasty morsel. Already these 
fisheries exceed in volume many times the deep-sea 
fisheries, and employ many times the number of men. _ If 
protection was possible, it is the shrimp industry that 
should have it, and judging by the bottles shown by the 
Fishery Committee as the food of fishes, it needs it very 
badly, for the larger forms evidently consume an amount 
of shrimps utterly out of proportion to their own value, 
and we might take up a crusade against predaceous fishes 
in all stages, little as well as big, with far more justice than 
closing grounds and limiting the work of our inshore men, 
until actually Southport, which used to be called Shrimp- 
opolis, is drawing supplies of shrimps from Holland, 
when there are plenty at our cwn doors if the shrimpers 
are allowed to take them. The Lancashire Coast and 
Irish Sea Fisheries are -precisely in the position of 
