298 MODERN SEA FISHING 



without much doubt, a large number are injured, and die 

 after having been returned to the sea. 



I have not the slightest wish to write anything which would 

 injure a very important branch of the fishing trade, and it may 

 be said, of course, that I am chiefly interested in preserving sea 

 fish for the use of sportsmen. If, however, it is shown that 

 overtrawling is being carried on, and that certain fisheries are 

 being seriously injured, it should be obvious that any reasonable 

 restrictions on trawling, which tend to promote the welfare of 

 the fisheries, are really most of all in the interests of the 

 trawlers. 



Many people are blinded by statistics and remain quite 

 ignorant of the fact that it is the vast quantities of fish brought 

 from the more distant fisheries of Faroe and Iceland, which swell 

 the takes and promote the illusion that our own fisheries are as 

 fruitful as ever. The history of many a fishing ground reads 

 somewhat as follows : a little trawling and a good deal of line 

 fishing and average quantities of fish caught year by year. 

 Then come more trawlers, and for several years more fish are 

 caught than previously, owing, of course, to increased and im- 

 proved methods of capture. But soon fellows the inevitable 

 falling-off in the productiveness of the fisheries, the men cry out, 

 and there is a royal commission or a special committee. In 

 due course a blue book is published, sooner or later a general 

 election occurs, new fishing grounds are discovered, and the 

 matter is forgotten. 



They seem to manage these things better in Denmark. The 

 Government of that country, finding that the English and 

 other foreign trawlers were beginning to injure the Faroe and 

 Icelandic fisheries, have recently prohibited trawling in those 

 waters. The mere possession of a trawl on those fishing 

 grounds entails a heavy penalty. 



What could be more forcible than the statement of the 



