CHAP. vii.J BAD EFFECTS OF TBAWLING. 315 



size as well. The falling off in quantity has decidedly been 

 accompanied by a smaller size, more particularly in haddocks. 

 Haddocks, twenty years ago, were caught from five pounds to 

 six pounds in weight ; now they hardly average three pounds. 

 There is scarcely a single cod to be caught now, and formerly 

 our boats got them scores together, and had to trail them out 

 in rows, and could only sell them for about 10s. a score; now 

 they realise at Christmas 5s. and 6s. each. " Of turbot-fishing 

 I am sorry to speak. It pains me to think of the injuries we 

 have sustained in this particular fishing by trawlers. At 

 present we dare not cast our nets, as they are sure to be lost. 

 I lost two ' fleets' of turbot-nets worth 25. About twenty- 

 six years ago I have caught two hundred turbot in one day : 

 now there are none to be got." Another resident gave similar 

 evidence, and thought that if trawling was persisted in their 

 noble bay would soon be fallow ground. John Purvis of 

 Whitburn also says that haddocks have decreased in size 

 as well as in quantity thinks they are at least a third smaller 

 now as compared with former years. Considers that the 

 trawling system has caused the diminution of fish which has 

 taken place during the last four years. David Archibald of 

 Croster had bought trawled fish not for food, as they were only 

 fit to be used as bait. 



Having given a fair sample of the evidence against the 

 trawling system, it will be but just that we now hear the 

 other side of the case. It is unfortunate, of course, that we 

 cannot obtain really impartial evidence on this vexed question, 

 as the party complaining is the party said to have had their 

 fishery prospects ruined by the use of the beam-trawl, whilst 

 the trawlers, of course, won't hear a bad word said of the 

 engine by which they gain their living. A Torbay fisherman, 

 accustomed to trawling for the last twenty-six years, flatly 

 contradicts much that has been said against the trawl-net. 

 He asserts that he never took or saw any spawn taken, and 



