34 



cashire Sea-Fisheries district, is itself one large natural 

 sea-fish area, with its own spawning grounds, nurseries, 

 and feeding grounds, independent, so far as the greater 

 part of its fish population goes, of neighbouring seas, 

 but having its inshore and offshore grounds interdepen- 

 dent and intimately connected with one another, by the 

 successive stages and migrations in the life histories of 

 the Food fishes. Consequently it is most unfortunate 

 that our national and international laws are such that the 

 area cannot be treated as a compact whole each part of 

 which is of importance in the interests of the fishing 

 industries. The whole of the Irish Sea ought to be under 

 the jurisdiction of one authority, so that fish may be 

 protected, when necessary, in any part of it, so that the 

 same bye-laws may, if required, apply to Lancashire, 

 Anglesey, and the Isle of Man, and so that, to take a 

 particular case, the Sole may be 2jrotectecl ivhen spaioning 

 in the deep water of the offshore grounds. The three mile 

 limit whatever it may be from the point of view of national 

 defence and international arrangement, is an absurdity 

 from the fishery point of view, and all efforts to improve 

 the fisheries in a district like ours are severely handicapped 

 by the fact that the fish, their enemies, their food, and 

 their captors can so readily pass beyond the range of all 

 regulations. We can do a good deal, it is true, by prevent- 

 ing the destruction of young fishes in the shallow waters 

 round the coast, but we cannot do nearly as much as is 

 desirable so long as no protection can be afforded to the 

 fish when spawning on the offshore grounds. 



Excepting such a case as the Herring, a migrating fish 

 with demersal eggs, the life history of one of our typical 

 food fishes is probably much as follows : — During the 

 greater part of the year the adult fish moves from place 

 to place throughout the district, being influenced in its 



