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for October 1894 there is a paper by this gentleman on the 

 destruction of immature fish in the North Sea. He states that 

 the suggestions as to size limits embodied in the draft report of 

 the parliamentary committee would, if carried into effect, leave 

 the North Sea fishery in statu quo. So much for committees. 

 With regard to one important flat fish, he says : 



That plaice are actually decreasing in the North Sea is a fact 

 so generally recognised that it hardly needs illustration, but the 

 present scarcity may not be so apparent from figures dealing with 

 aggregate catches as it becomes when we examine the catches of 

 individual boats. In examining the total figures it must be borne 

 in mind that the fishing power is enormous, our own large fleet 

 being supplemented not only by foreigners, but by vessels hailing 

 from other British ports, such as Scarborough, Shields, Aberdeen, 

 Glasgow, and even Milford Haven. 



The scarcity is most felt in the winter months, when, for what- 

 ever reason, the fish are very hard to catch. Thus in the last winter 

 a smack failed to average two boxes of plaice in ten consecutive 

 voyages along the neighbouring coast and off Flamborough Head, 

 an area which has the reputation of being fairly productive for the 

 season. The matter may be further illustrated by extracts from 

 some observations of which my friend Mr. R. Douglas permits me 

 to make use. On February I, 1893, a steam trawler landed one 

 plaice after ten days' fishing ; on the 3rd another landed one box 

 after eight days. On December 13, 1892, a steam trawler had 

 three boxes for fourteen days, and on the next day two similar 

 vessels had two each for eight days. These figures are, unfortu- 

 nately, by no means so rare as to be exceptional. 



Mr. Holt regards steam trawlers as most powerful engines 

 of destruction, dangerously so, in fact, in the present state of 

 the grounds. With regard to the advantage of closing the 

 fishing grounds within the three miles' territorial limit of the 

 shore, Mr. Holt gives an account of some trawling which was 

 carried on by Professor Mclntosh, on the Garland in the 

 neighbourhood of Scarborough, with the object of obtaining 



