114 SEA FISHERIES 



its destructive power is enormous. In 1863 M. Coste 

 stated that in the neighbourhood of La Hougue the 

 prawn-fishers destroyed, between April and September, in 

 an area of barely 15 square miles, more than 200 millions 

 of little soles, turbot, and brill. " Stretching over a length 

 of ten leagues," says Coste, " is a vast asylum where the 

 young generations of flat-fish take up their summer 

 quarters. There they assemble and linger from April to 

 September in such quantities that the prawn-fishers 

 destroy them in alarming numbers : it is an absolute 

 carnage. On the neighbouring shore there are a thou- 

 sand persons engaged in the ' shrimping ' industry. It 

 may be asserted without exaggeration that no less than 

 three millions of young turbot, soles, brill, plaice, &c., 

 perish at each tide." 



The destruction has been equally great at Croisic. 

 Little immature soles have often been seen in the fish 

 market. During the month of March, 1892, the men of 

 Croisic were selling 900 pairs of soles for 485., whereas if 

 they had been left five months longer in the sea they 

 would have fetched ten times the price. In 1884 M. 

 Maraud, collaborating with the Commissary of Maritime 

 Inscription for the district, instituted a committee of in- 

 quiry, which, after exploring a given area by means of 

 the shrimp-net, came to the following conclusion : 



In obtaining one shilling's worth of shrimps the net 

 destroys 43 pints of small fish, measuring about 340 to 

 the pint. On June 28, 1895, the Dieppe Chambers of 

 Commerce directed the following experiment : Equipped 

 with the shrimp-trawl, the Furet made four draughts 

 within sight of the shore and took, opposite Cayeux 

 church, 229 fish, weighing altogether 17*64 Ibs., unfit for 

 sale ; opposite Crotoy the catch consisted of 93 fish, of 

 which only 14 flounders and lemon soles 6 to 8 inches in 



