78 FISHERIES OF THE NORTH SEA 



days. Fish which are caught on any of the 

 North Sea banks must be iced pending 

 arrival in port, and, with the exception 

 of the herring boats, which usually make 

 for port the day following their fishing, it 

 is mainly the custom for trawlers to take 

 large quantities of broken ice to sea with 

 them. In case of long distance voyages, 

 where 2000 miles have often to be traversed 

 in order to trawl the fishing banks arid to 

 return, it is possible that "fleeting." 

 will again come into vogue, but on a much 

 larger scale. If a vessel capable of carrying 

 700 on 1000 tons became the centre of 

 the activities of say a dozen trawlers, each 

 day their night's catch could be trans- 

 ferred to the large vessel and the fish 

 could be placed in cold storage in live 

 condition. Before the war the cost of 

 bringing chilled meat from the Argentine 

 was approximately three-farthings a pound : 

 if fish is brought into this country from the 

 northern banks under the same conditions, 

 the expense should not be any greater, for 

 Iceland is only one-sixth the distance of 

 the Argentine. Before the war Grimsby 

 trawlers often found it lucrative to fish 



