296 



MODERN SEA FISHING 



soles to stock the Scotch Fishery Board's hatchery at Dun- 

 bar, &c. 



The fishing grounds extend along the coast for a little more 

 than ten miles, from Hayburn Wyke to Filey Brigg. Scarborough 

 lies midway between these two points. The fishing grounds 

 had been closed to trawlers for two years, and the local people 

 believed that a considerable improvement had already mani- 

 fested itself in the local line fishery. Soles seemed scarce, but 

 those taken were fine fish, and it was a curious fact that the 

 local fishermen were catching soles very easily on their lines, 

 though the steam trawler took very few. This, I think, is 

 often the case early in the season. Directly after spawning the 

 fish are hungry, and take a bait more readily than at other 

 times. While the Garland took only sixteen and a half pairs 

 of soles in her trawl during the best night's fishing, twenty-five 

 and eighteen pairs were respectively taken on lines from two 

 cobbles fishing on the same grounds in one night. Mr. Holt's 

 conclusion is that the sole fishery had greatly revived since 

 trawling was forbidden in those waters. He was told that the 

 haddock fishery had not much benefited by the by-law, as the 

 grounds lie further out than those on which the soles are chiefly 

 caught, and that the trawlers still encroach a good deal on the 

 territorial haddock ground. 



It is often put forward on behalf of the trawlers that all 

 undersized fish are returned to the water, being unsaleable. 

 But this is one of those dreadfully unpractical remarks put 

 forward by unpractical people, who quite overlook the injury 

 done to the fish while in the trawl. Referring to the trawling 

 experiment off Scarborough, Mr. Holt said 'a rather large 

 quantity of undersized haddock, whiting, and gurnard were 

 thereby destroyed, while the destruction of small plaice, though 

 not great in actual numbers, was very considerable in regard 

 to the local supply of this species.' 



