108 SEA FISHERIES 



He de Houat, where formerly were numbers of gilt-heads 

 and bar in 4 to 15 fathoms of water, constant and 

 intensive seining has resulted in their disappearance. 

 Finally, the eel-spear and the metallic oyster-hurdle 

 have contributed to the exhaustion of the Arcachon 

 lagoon. 



But it is trawling on the large scale, and above all 

 the use of the otter-trawl, which has provoked the 

 bitterest polemics, because the problem it gives rise to 

 is not merely of a technical but also of an economic 

 nature. The fact is that the small fishermen, who, not 

 possessing capital, cannot make use of this powerful and 

 costly equipment, accuse it of the most terrible crimes, 

 and use it as a weapon in attacking the wealthy com- 

 panies. It is therefore necessary to examine this question 

 with the greatest impartiality. I shall deal with the 

 effects of trawling upon the fishing-grounds and also its 

 effect upon flat-fish, the migratory species, the meadows 

 of sea-grass, the spawning-grounds, and the young fish. 



A steam trawler, furnished with an otter-trawl, and 

 working about twenty hours a day at an average speed 

 of two and a half knots an hour, and trawling three 

 hundred days in the year, will plough up the submarine 

 soil over an extent of about 83,000 acres nearly 130 

 square miles. Thus the 213 steam trawlers owned in 

 France would exploit some 1,780,000 acres annually, or 

 2,780 square miles if they did not go over the same 

 ground twice. In the light of these calculations, based 

 upon the data given by M. Roche, we need not be 

 astonished at the statements of the English Inspectors of 

 Fisheries : "There were last year (1902) about 1,200 

 trawlers in the North Sea. Supposing that each vessel 

 fished thirteen hours a day for 280 days with a net 75 feet 

 wide, and covered 17 square miles per month, which 



