142 FISHERIES OF THE NORTH SEA 



excessive that in many parts of France 

 the people never see salt-water fish in 

 fresh condition. The value of the catch 

 per head of population engaged in the 

 industry is a little more than one-third 

 that of the British worker. The advan- 

 tages are equal, for the sea is open to all, 

 and we can only put the poor results down 

 to the unprogressive spirit of the workers, 

 antiquated methods of fishing, and bad 

 legislation. Over 90,000 men are engaged 

 in the small inshore boat fishing, and this 

 of all kinds of fishing is the most unpro- 

 gressive, unprofitable to the workers, and 

 destructive to marine life. Immature fish 

 are killed off in millions with every tide, 

 and yet these are the same people who 

 strenuously fought against the introduc- 

 tion of the steam trawler on the ground 

 that that method of fishing would exhaust 

 the supplies. 



The French trawlers work the New- 

 foundland and Icelandic fishery, and this 

 employs over 10,000 men, landing close on 

 1,000,000, or one-fifth of the total of the 

 annual French fishery catch. These ships 

 are of larger size, like the British trawler, 



