162 OUR HERITAGE THE SEA 



be found at all, are those whose habits render them 

 peculiarly liable to extinction wherever man can reach 

 them flat fish of all kinds, which lie on the sand 

 ready to be scooped in by the dredger or trawl. The 

 marvel is, not that these banks should begin to show 

 signs of depletion, but that with so restricted an area 

 and such extraordinarily sluggish fish, whose flesh is so 

 delicate that the demand for them exceeds the supply, 

 that they have not been completely cleared of fish 

 long ago by the efforts of the trawlers alone, I 

 mean, and without taking into account at all the 

 operations of their natural enemies, who can and do 

 pursue them everywhere and at all times of the day 

 or the year, preying upon them from the time they are 

 deposited as ova until they attain the size of edible 

 fish. 



There is also another side to this tale of depletion. 

 Many experienced fishermen aver that so far from 

 trawling exhausting the supply of fish on any given 

 bank, it cultivates a continuous supply. I have often 

 heard tales of certain ridges and valleys on well-known 

 banks which have been avoided by common consent 

 of the fishermen in order that they might see if the 

 fish would increase in numbers, but so far from that 

 being the case it was found that the fish disappeared 

 altogether, owing, so my informants believed, to the 

 fact that they, the fish, had been accustomed to have 

 their natural food stirred up from the bottom by the 

 drag of the trawl, and not finding it as easily obtain- 

 able as it used to be, they had deserted the spot 

 altogether. Of the truth of this I can say nothing ; 

 I can only record the fishermen's evidence. But with 

 regard to the necessity for protecting the fish on 



