652 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [10] 



themselves subsisted. It came out in evidence, first and foremost, that 

 the fishing population supplied no appreciable contingent to Her Maj- 

 esty's uiwy. It came out, in the second place, that the charge made 

 against trawlers, that they would destroy the spawn of the fish ordi- 

 narily caught by the long lines, had no foundation ; for, although it might 

 appear strange for him to say so, yet he believed there was no body of 

 men more absolutely ignorant of everything relating to fish, except the 

 catching of them, than fishermen. The first complaint which came be- 

 fore them was that trawlers were bringing up an enormous quantity of 

 spawn every day in their trawls ; but, upon inquiry it turned out that 

 what was supposed to be spawn was nothing but gelatinous inhabi- 

 tants of the sea, which had just about as much to do with fish as 

 cocks and hens to do with Jumbo. With regard to the charge made 

 against trawlers of destroying spawn, he might mention that such fish 

 as haddock and cod did not lay eggs at the bottom of the sea ; their 

 eggs floated at the top, so that it was impossible for the trawlers to de- 

 stroy the spawn. Since that time there was abundant evidence to prove 

 that, while trawlers had gone on steadily increasing, there had been no 

 diminution in the number of cod, haddock, and whiting caught. Lastly, 

 as to the supposed injury that the trawlers were doing themselves, there* 

 was no question that up to the present moment the amount of capital 

 invested in trawling vessels had steadily increased, and he could not 

 understand shrewd and clear-headed people like the last speaker put- 

 ting their money into a business if it did not pay expenses. He could 

 not describe the audacity of the statements made at that time with re- 

 spect to trawl fishing. Witnesses came before the commission and stated 

 that trawled fish were unfit for human food ; that they were poisonous j 

 and one man summed up all the demerits and atrocities of trawl fish by 

 saying that they were " mashiated," though what he meant by the re- 

 mark it is impossible to say. Beyond all doubt, if anything were done 

 to stop trawl fishing on the enormous scale on which it was now carried 

 out in this country ; it would no longer be a case of complaining of the 

 price of fish, but ninety-one out of one hundred would not be able to 

 buy any fish except herrings and the like, which were caught in the 

 oi)en sea by nets. He could not give the figures now, but he recollected 

 it being stated some time ago that 800 trawlers hailed from the port of 

 Loudon, and therefore it was preposterous to talk of interfering with their 

 fishery. No answers had been put forward to the arguments adduced in 

 the report to which he had referred, namely, the constant increase of 

 capital put into the trawling business and the constant increase in the 

 tonnage of the vessels employed j and to such patent facts as these, 

 that a town like Brixham was absolutely built out of trawled fish, and 

 the trawlers who caught the fish had trawled over a comparatively 

 small area close to Brixham for the last 70 or 80 years, but the fishing 

 was going on now as well as ever," 

 In these words Professor Huxley was but echoing the opinions of his 



