THE INADEQUACY OF THE THREE-MILE LIMIT 709 



fish was to prevent the trawl from being used on the grounds ; 

 and if this could not be done by direct closure of the area, it 

 might be accomplished by prohibiting the sale of undersized 

 flat - fishes generally ; for on these particular " small fish " 

 grounds, or " nurseries," large fishes are so scarce that trawling 

 is remunerative only by reason of the great quantity of small 

 fishes taken. If the sale of these were forbidden, then trawling 

 in such localities would cease. For an enactment of this kind 

 to succeed, it was obviously necessary that it should apply to 

 the whole kingdom, and it was opposed by fishermen on other 

 parts of the coast ; and as it was felt to be extremely problem- 

 atical whether it would secure the cessation of trawling on 

 the small -fish grounds without at the same time injuriously 

 affecting the fisheries on our own coast and raising the price of 

 fish, the Bill was abandoned. Several subsequent Bills of the 

 same kind shared the same fate, usually after a more or less 

 exhaustive inquiry by a Parliamentary Committee. One of 

 those Committees, consisting of thirteen members of the House 

 of Commons, took evidence in 1900 from the representatives of 

 the trawlers and others, of the character previously described, 

 advocates of the Bill admitting that in their view it was a 

 tentative measure, and that the direct closure of the grounds 

 would be preferable. The Committee thought that it was 

 proved beyond all doubt that there was a serious diminution 

 of flat-fishes, particularly in the North Sea ; that the ancient 

 fishing - grounds were much depleted ; that the evil was a 

 growing one, and that in default of a remedy the consequences 

 would be disastrous to the industry. 1 One of the causes of the 

 diminution was found to be the vast destruction of immature 



1 Special Report and Report from the Select Committee on the Sea Fisheries Bill, 

 1900 (287) : "Your Committee think that it is proved beyond doubt that there 

 is a very serious diminution of the supply of certain kinds of flat-fish, particularly 

 in the North Sea. Of late years the total quantity of such fish caught has re- 

 mained nearly stationary. This fact, when taken along with the enormously in- 

 creased catching power and the vastly larger area of sea subjected to fishing 

 operations, seems to show that the ancient fishing-grounds are much depleted. 

 The whole of the local evidence, differing in many other respects, is practically 

 unanimous as to this point. It seems clear that the evil is a growing one, and 

 that in default of a remedy the consequences to the fishing industry in the dimin- 

 ished supply of flat-fish will at no very distant future be disastrous." The late 

 Mr (afterwards Lord) Ritchie, President of the Board of Trade, Mr Graham 

 Murray (now Lord Dunedin), and Captain Sinclair, now Lord Pentland, Secretary 

 for Scotland, were members of the Committee. 



