80 Part III. — Ticentieth Anmial Repori 



quantity of any particular species landed from a given area might be due, 

 not to a change in the natural abundance of the fish, but to the pre- 

 ponderance of one mode of fishing over another. In recent years a con- 

 siderable change has occurred in tlie relative proportion of these modes of 

 fishing, trawling having greatly increased and line-fishing diminished, and 

 this circumstance alone must have materially affected the proportional 

 quantities of the fishes landed. 



At large ports there ought not to be difficulty in ascertaining the quan- 

 tities lauded by the boats pursuing the diffei'ent methods of fishing, since 

 the particulars are separately obtained. 



The Places Whbrb the Fish are Taken, 



It is also very necessary, for the purpose iu view, to determine the area 

 where the fish are caught. In dealing, for example, with the question of 

 the alleged impoverishment of the North Sea, it would be manifestly 

 wrong to include among the fish from that sea those which are taken in 

 other regions, as Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Bay of Biscay, the coasts 

 of Ireland, the west coast of England and Scotland, the south coast 

 of England or the north coast of Scotland. The fish from these 

 various regions are not distinguished in the returns from fish caught in 

 the North Sea, and they form an increasingly great part of the total fish 

 landed. It by no means follows that fish landed on a particular coast, 

 e.g., the East Coast, were caught in the sea which washes that coast. This 

 remark was applicable to some extent in the days before steam fishing 

 vessels were employed, but it has now much greater force when the bulk 

 of the supply is landed by steamers. The place of landing thus furnishes 

 no evidence as to the place of fishing. 



The incluhion of fish from different places may affect the result in 

 two ways. It may affect the total quantity landed, and it may affect the 

 proportional quantities of the different kinds of fish. Fish are much 

 more abundant at Iceland than in the North Sea — that is why the 

 trawlers go there. A two hours' drag may more than equal several five 

 hours' drags in the North Sea. In the North Sea itself the abundance 

 of fishes varies much in different parts. The catches obtained on the 

 Fisher Bank are fully one-third less in quantity than those obtained on 

 the northern grounds in deeper water. It is thus clear that, with'the 

 other factors remaining unchanged, the places of fishing may alone pro- 

 foundly affect the total quantity landed, and an increase or decrease in 

 the latter is not evidence of an increase or decrease on the grounds in a 

 particular region. In order to obtain the infoi'mation desired as to the 

 productiveness of any area the fish from that area must be separately 

 specified. 



Not only does the gross abundance of fish vary in different regions, 

 but the proportional abundance of the diflferent kinds of fishes varies in 

 still greater degree, so that it is possible by looking at a shot laid out in 

 the market to tell with fair accuracy the region from which it comes. 

 In a catch got in the deeper water, e.g., off the Shetlands, there is a 

 preponderating proportion of long fish, for example, such as ling, saithe, 

 a,nd hake, and the fiat-fishes consist almost entirely of witches and 

 megrims, with a few lemon soles and few or no plaice; haddocks are 

 usually also more abundant. Particulars on these points are given in the 

 following pages (p. 135), but I may here adduce one or two com- 

 parisons to show how the proportions differ in different places, the place 

 in each case having been independently ascertained, apart from those con- 

 nected with the vessel. 



