CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



VII. CONCLUDING REMARKS THE FUTURE OF THE 

 FISHERIES. 



As fish of all kinds are year by year becoming 

 dearer, we are forced to the conclusion, that 

 either the supply is decreasing, or the demand is 

 increasing. It is stoutly maintained by some 

 writers that ' there are as good fish in the sea as 

 ever came out of it,' and also that ' there are as 

 many fish in the sea as ever were drawn from it.' 

 The literal truth of both sayings may be ques- 

 tioned : we know that it is quite possible to ex- 

 haust the natural supplies of fish, and there is good 

 evidence that we diminished our stock of salmon 

 by industriously capturing all that came to the 

 nets, never thinking of leaving in the water a stock 

 to breed from. The natural oyster-scalps fall off 

 in productiveness when over-dredged, and in both 

 Britain and France there is conclusive proof of 

 over-dredging. As the reader will have learned 

 from a perusal of the preceding pages, the herring- 

 fishery is not thought to be so productive as the 

 machinery of capture would warrant, and our shore 

 haddock-fishery is almost exhausted ; the aggre- 

 gate size of some of the most accessible fishes 

 has sensibly diminished ; and there is a not un- 

 reasonable alarm that our fish- supplies may in 

 time come to be seriously deficient. 



In a blue-book containing 61,000 questions 

 and answers, the result of a parliamentary inquiry 

 into the condition of the British sea-fisheries, there 

 is ample evidence of its being possible to exhaust, 

 or at least break up, the most numerous shoals 

 of sea-fish ; but the commissioners who were 

 appointed to make the inquiry of which this blue- 

 book is the result, find in their Report that our 

 ' total ' fish-supplies ' have not diminished,' and 

 tell us, that on the coasts of the United Kingdom 

 the fish-supply admits of further augmentation, 

 'the limits of which are not indicated by any 

 evidence we have been able to obtain.' But 

 the commissioners unfortunately omitted to take 

 into account the enormous augmentation of the 

 machinery of capture. In former times, a line 

 containing 800 hooks would, as a rule, capture 

 800 haddocks ; but now, a line of 800 hook- 

 power, does not (as a rule) capture an eighth 

 part of the number ! The public have been de- 

 ceived by false reports of the inexhaustibility of 

 our fish-supplies, and are at length beginning to 

 find that the increased machinery which has been 

 brought into play for the capture of fish during 

 late years is telling with deadly effect on the 

 shoals. Unfortunately, we have no complete sta- 

 tistics of the annual capture of white fish in the 

 British seas ; but, if we may judge from the care- 

 fully compiled figures of our most important sea- 

 harvest (the herring-fishery), it seems quite pos- 

 sible, if not to exterminate, at anyrate seriously to 

 affect the productive results of a given fishery. 

 Nor could it well be otherwise ; for little care 

 is taken that a proper supply of breeding-fish is 

 left in the shoals from which the supply can 

 afterwards be obtained. It is, moreover, a fact, 

 and a fact the importance of which seems to 

 have been strangely overlooked, that a large 

 number of fish cannot be obtained except when 

 they congregate to spawn. To capture and 

 cure herring full of milt and roe, is treated as 

 a meritorious action ; no other kinds obtain the 

 718 



'full crown brand.' If it be criminal to kill a 

 gravid salmon, it ought to be equally so to kill a 

 gravid herring. In the case of Scotland, how- 

 ever, authentic statistics have been available since 

 the division of the coasts into 26 distinct districts, 

 and the publication of the valuable reports of the 

 Fishery Board. From their last report, that for 

 1885, we learn that the total value of the fisheries 

 of Scotland in 1884 was .3,351,849. 



II. THE OIL-FISHERIES. 



Gas, as a means of lighting both our houses and 

 our cities, has to a great extent rendered us inde- 

 pendent of the use of certain kinds of oil ; but, 

 nevertheless, the varieties of sea-animals and fish 

 from which this valuable substance can be ob- 

 tained are still in demand. In the preparation of 

 jute, whale-oil is essential. In addition to the 

 Greenland and sperm-whale fishery, we have 

 various other sources of supply. From the liver 

 of the valuable cod-fish, we derive an oil which 

 occupies an important place in this country as a 

 medicine ; and the sunfish, or basking-shark, is 

 also valuable, principally from the value of its 

 liver. The seal also is now prized both for the 

 sake of its skin, and because it yields a large 

 quantity of oil ; accordingly, many of the vessels 

 now engaged in whale-fishing also make a voyage 

 in search of seals. At one time, as many as 160 

 vessels of large tonnage left British ports for the 

 whale-fishing; but owing to various causes, chiefly 

 the discovery of other lubricants, and the scarcity 

 of whales, there is not now a third of that number 

 employed in the pursuit of the whale of the north 

 seas ; and it is chiefly American vessels that are 

 engaged in the chase and capture of the sperma- 

 ceti whales of the great south seas. 



The cetaceous order of animals, of which the 

 whale is the most remarkable and important 

 member, is distinguished by various peculiarities, 

 which render it a link, as it were, between the 

 creatures of the land and the sea. While living in 

 the ocean, and formed to make their way through 

 its waters with ease and velocity, the cetacea differ 

 from the true fish-tribes in being mammalian, or 

 warm-blooded : having organs for respiring atmo- 

 spheric air, like inhabitants of the land. 



We will direct our attention to the Greenland 

 whale, and to the spermaceti, as being typical 

 members of the general family, which is very 

 numerous, embracing as it does the Greenland or 

 ' right whale,' the great rorqual, the cachalot or 

 spermaceti whale, the narwhal, bottle-nose, ca'ing, 

 and others. 



The Greenland Whale. Very exaggerated 

 notions at one time prevailed as to the size of 

 whales, some writers asserting that 160 feet was 

 not an uncommon length. Dr Scoresby, however, 

 declared that the common whale seldom or never 

 exceeds seventy feet in length, and is more fre- 

 quently under sixty. Out of 322 whales which he 

 had personally aided in capturing, not one exceeded 

 fifty-eight feet ; and the largest ever taken, of 

 which he knew the reported measurement to be 

 authentic, was sixty-seven feet. The greatest 

 girth is from thirty to forty feet, the thickest 

 portion of the animal being immediately behind 

 the head, which occupies a space equal to a third 

 of the whole body. The whale is destitute of the 

 back or dorsal fin, but possesses two pectoral fins, 



