THE HERRING FISHERIES. 33 



Belgium, and Holland. Also, with a proposal to adopt 

 fish culture in some of our favourite estuaries and firths, 

 that trawling be entirely abolished from such districts, &c. 



It is now five hundred years since a petition was pre- 

 sented to the English Parliament against the use of a 

 machine which not only retained all kinds of fish, both 

 small and great, in the meshes of its net, but also by its 

 iron supports destroyed fish, spawn, &c., "to the great 

 damage of the whole commons of the kingdom." Trawling, 

 then, has not yet reduced the fish supply, and it only now 

 remains to guard against this. 



Much of the so-called herring spawn has been proved to 

 be gelatinous bodies of marine zoophytes and ascidians, 

 or the spawn of cuttle-fishes, but, as we stated, herring eggs 

 have been brought up by the trawl. 



The old legal mesh for the herring net was I inch 

 square from knot to knot, but since 1868 fishermen have 

 been allowed to use any size of mesh they please. It is 

 desirable that the old law of 1809 be re-enacted, because a 

 small mesh will catch small, and therefore young, herrings ; 

 at the same time it can only choke large herrings without 

 catching them. There are very many points which require 

 overhauling in the interests of the fishermen alone. And 

 there are some which require redress in the interests of the 

 public. For instance, boat owners and others " sailing by 

 the share " must proceed in the first instance to a custom- 

 house, and sign their respective contracts before the officials. 

 The charges for taking depositions as to damage or loss at 

 sea should be from some other source than the sufferers 

 themselves. 



Great damage is done to nettage by lost anchors ripping 

 them open, and these hidden snares are unintentionally 

 encouraged by the Board of Trade, for heavy penalties 



