FACTORS OF DESTRUCTION 109 



figures are quite normal, these 1,200 trawlers would suffice 

 to cover twice in a year the whole of the 100,000 square 

 miles of practicable bottom in the North Sea." 



Recently the English Government has held an inquiry 

 into the emptying of the North Sea, and the Board of 

 Agriculture and Fisheries has published the results. 

 Here they are in a few words. Since the introduction 

 of the otter-trawl the number of plaice caught per diem 

 has continually decreased. Between 1903 and 1906 the 

 takings of flat-fish fell by 40 per cent. In 1903 the 

 English steam trawlers landed 190,000 tons of fish, and 

 the sailing trawlers 14,000 tons. In 1906 the numbers 

 fell respectively to 140,000 and 12,000. On the other 

 hand, the otter-trawl has not, as has often been pretended, 

 the effect of frightening fish and disturbing the migratory 

 species. No serious connection can be cited between 

 trawling and the disappearance of shoals of herring or 

 sardine. Moreover, in 1891 the increasingly large takes 

 of hake in the Bay of Biscay gave the direct lie to the 

 accusation. 



Scientific research has also disposed of the mistaken 

 idea that the trawlers, in destroying the meadows of sea- 

 grass, also destroy the asylum and spawning-place of 

 innumerable fish. The question assumes a double aspect. 

 That the trawls destroy the banks of seaweed is probable ; 

 but it must first be shown that these submarine meadows 

 are spawning-grounds. Now, there is no proof of the 

 kind. More than a century ago, Tillet, Fougeroux and 

 Guettard, who were entrusted by the French Academy of 

 Sciences with the elucidation of this problem, positively 

 declared that an examination of the wrack from such "sea- 

 meadows " betrayed, under the microscope, not a sign of 

 the spawn of any fish. I myself have had occasion to 

 examine many submarine meadows on the French, Eng- 



