124 SEA FISHERIES 



alternatives can be realised. Either the nations interested 

 must conclude an agreement on the basis of the Hague 

 Convention or the Convention will be abandoned. In 

 any case it is to be hoped that the bottoms of bays and 

 estuaries will be entirely protected ; if not all the year, at 

 least while the larvae and fry are growing. I do not speak 

 of the spawning-grounds in the open sea, as they are 

 beyond the reach of the small fisherman ; moreover, 

 their delimitation is difficult and their supervision im- 

 possible. 



Ill 



While awaiting the new era, it is, I repeat, indispensable 

 that France should protect her territorial waters against 

 the delinquencies of the small fisherman. 1 The 'long- 

 shore nurseries and spawning-grounds must be absolutely 

 respected ; seines, curtain-nets, and shrimp-nets must 

 disappear for ever from our bays and estuaries ; the ox- 

 trawl must be kept at sea ; and severe penalties, rigorously 

 applied, must bring the delinquents to their senses, to 

 whatever social class they may belong. This must be 

 done in the interest of the public as well as of the fishers 

 themselves. 2 It may be objected : " But there are 60,000 



1 All the European nations have protected their territorial waters : 

 Italy (the law of 1877 prohibiting the sale of young fish), Denmark 

 (the law of April 5. 1888, having the same end), Holland (the 3,000 

 fishers of the Zuyder Zee being obliged, by the law of 1889, to 

 abstain from fishing at frequent and stated intervals), England (the 

 Hull Congress of 1890, prohibiting the capture and sale of young 

 fish, and of turbot of less than 10 inches in length), Belgium (the 

 law of August 29, 1891, and the Royal Decree of September 5, 1892). 



8 Some of the small fishers have been alarmed at the damage they 

 have done (at Panne, in 1888, and at Blankenberghe). Others (at 

 Croisic) have substituted the basket-trap for the shrimp-trawl. 

 The basket-trap or easier is made somewhat like an eel-pot, some 

 30 inches long, and is covered with a net with a mesh of about '4 of 

 an inch. Twenty-five casters yield as many shrimps as a small trawl. 



