274 SEA FISHERIES 



French fisheries. The sea belongs to everyone ; it is not 

 enough to know it, to be reared by generations of sea- 

 going ancestors, to be cradled within sound of the 

 sea and lulled by the murmur of its waves : the sea 

 must be exploited as though it were a meadow, a 

 field, a coal-pit, or a mine. Nature does not give ; 

 she sells ! 



The sagacity and the good organisation of fishermen are 

 reflected by the yield of the fishing-grounds; for although 

 it is obvious that the latter are productive in proportion 

 to their richness, it is also certain that their productive- 

 ness is in proportion to the exploitation to which they 

 are subjected. 1 Now, these two terms, you may remem- 

 ber, may be independent of one another, since there are 

 still virgin grounds. 



Below, reduced to the basis of the square mile, are the 

 yields we might say the harvests of the Channel, the 

 Atlantic, and the Mediterranean, as far as they may be 

 calculated from the annual quantities of fish taken by 

 French fishermen. The yield of the North Sea is calcu- 

 lated according to its total productiveness. The yield 

 per square mile applies principally to bottom-fish ; but it 

 may also be expressed in terms of bottom-fish and fish 

 taken in the drift-net, supposing these latter to be precipi- 

 tated on the bottom. The exploitable area of the Channel 

 and the Atlantic continental plateau is taken as 28,490 

 square miles ; of the Mediterranean as 2,964 ; of the 

 fishponds and estuaries of the Channel and Atlantic as 

 1 80 square miles ; of those of the Mediterranean as 335 ; 

 and the area of the North Sea is taken as being 38,500 

 square miles, out of an actual area of 154,000. These 

 data granted, we obtain, by calculation, the following 

 figures : 



* See p. 190 ft seq. 



