REPOPULATION 129 



Department of the Marine, using the powers conferred 

 upon it by the law of January 5, 1852, should make the 

 creation of reserves general ; it even went so far as to 

 state that if the reserves were absolutely respected the 

 trawl might be authorised in free territorial waters. In 

 1901 it advised the maintenance and at need the establish- 

 ment of new reserves in the coastal regions where the 

 fishers are numerous but not congested. It appeared a 

 difficult matter to force the acceptance of this system 

 where the populations are dense and concentrated in a 

 few ports ; what is good for the Mediterranean may 

 not be good for the Channel. 



In explaining the theory of reserves I have hinted 

 at the two methods of reservation. Should they be 

 temporary or permanent ? It is obvious that the ideal 

 reservation, regarded as a stock of animal material, is by 

 definition an inviolable asylum where life is assured to 

 the reproductive adults as well as to the young ; a 

 gigantic mixed nursery, an effective centre of production 

 whence the surplusage of individuals, driven by com- 

 petition, would radiate in all directions. But the 

 exigencies of theory often accord but ill with corporate 

 interests, and the multiplication of coastal reserves would 

 quickly arouse the anger of the fishermen. On the other 

 hand, it is chiefly at the moment of spawning that fish 

 assemble in compact phalanxes, in fixed localities, and it 

 has not been proved, as we shall directly see, that those 

 fish which feed on the bottom remain always in the 

 same locality. We must therefore fall back upon the 

 temporary reservation. A temporary reservation is a 

 spawning-ground and nursery, precisely located by land- 

 marks, on which fishing is prohibited solely while the 

 adults are spawning and the fry growing up, or from the 

 middle of March to the end of June. These dates are by 



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