120 SKA FISFIKIUKS 



commissaries of the Maritime Inscription are specially 

 instructed to ensure the execution of the laws anrl 

 regulations affecting the coastwise fisheries. The com- 

 missaries of the Maritime Inscription are seconded by 

 officers and officer-mariners (officiers-marinicrs) com- 

 manding the boats and crews of the fish-guard 

 (garde -peche), the inspectors of maritime fishiii* , 

 the syndics of seamen (syndics des gens de mer), the 

 master-fishermen (prud'hommcs pcchcurs), the master 

 maritime fish-guards (patrons garde-peche maritimcs), 

 the maritime fish-guards (garde-peche maritimcs), and 

 the gendarmes de la marine. In the matter of the 

 sale, transport, or hawking of fry, immature fish, or 

 shell-fish under the prescribed dimensions, the functions 

 of the police are exercised concurrently by the officers 

 and agents already named, by the sworn municipal 

 agents, and the officials of the indirect taxation and 

 octroi departments. What a waste of paper and ink 

 all this must represent 1 



It is obvious that the decree of 1862 includes the 

 fundamental and necessary prohibitions, for the coast 

 and its nurseries must at all costs be protected : but 

 history has shown this document to be insufficient. 

 Does its inefficacy arise from its very nature, or is it 

 the result of a lack of supervision ? I incline strongly 

 to the second hypothesis. There is no lack of facts 

 to establish it, and those who, like the writer of these 

 lines, have a thorough knowledge of the affairs of a 

 great port are well aware of this. In deference to one 

 of the resolutions of the Congress of Maritime Fisheries 

 of Les Sables-d'Olonne, the Minister of the Marine, 

 in his circular of January 20, 1897, instructed his 

 officers, officials, and agents to enforce the strict 

 observation of the regulations relating to the meshes 



