VALUE OF FISHERIES 57 



trawlermen ; the inshore beds are the 

 grounds on which immature fish live, and 

 they should be absolutely reserved for 

 breeding purposes. In some areas vast 

 quantities of valuable small fry perish 

 owing to the use of the small mesh nets. 

 Recently our Government started a cam- 

 paign to assist the small inshore fisher- 

 men, which is like encouraging fifteenth- 

 century methods against twentieth-century 

 improvements. No doubt it is a very 

 picturesque sight to see their small boats 

 sailing in and out of our watering-places, 

 but the method is not economical, pro- 

 gressive, or lucrative, compared with proper 

 deep-sea fishing. The young fish have 

 their habitat near the coast, and on reach- 

 ing maturity go into the deeper waters 

 and are caught by trawlers. The small 

 boat when fishing with nets usually gets 

 millions of immature specimens which 

 are destroyed, and only the fish of edible 

 value are selected for the market ; their 

 work is continually intercepted by bad 

 weather, absence of demand in the little 

 coast villages, or other vagaries. On the 

 other hand, the trawler can almost 



