CHAPTER IV 

 FACTORS OF DESTRUCTION 



I. The depopulation of our native waters The impoverishment 

 of the North Sea. II. Natural causes of such depopulation : 

 sudden migrations, modifications of the sea-bottom, voracious 

 fish and mammals. III. The damage done by seines and 

 drift-nets The otter-trawl in relation to flat-fish and spawning- 

 ground. IV. The ox-net or Mediterranean bag-trawl and the 

 shrimp-trawl The small fishers responsible. 



FISH have always been a plentiful foodstuff. The 

 men of the Neanderthal or of Cro-Magnon, bent over 

 the lake near which their huts were built, or the 

 little bay enclosed by cliffs which had served them 

 for refuge on the conclusion of a fight, threw in their 

 lines to take a catch of fish, a nourishing and abundant 

 foodstuff. For a long time they would fish there ; 

 for a long time they would rest, for all the nations 

 of mankind are or were ruled by the law of the 

 least effort. But in time the lake or the little bay 

 would become exhausted, and would no longer suffice 

 to feed the tribe. Then the tribe would migrate and 

 settle elsewhere, and the same story would begin 

 again. It is a story which is not yet completed. 

 Look at the fishers of the French coast. They 

 put to sea in their little boats and fish always in 

 the same place, almost under the windows of their 



cottages. The sons do as did their fathers ; the 



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