CHAP, vii.] SCARCITY OF FISH. 313 



those when I was a young man." The fishermen at Culler- 

 coats, when they trawl, use the small trawl, and fish in shallow 

 water. Under these circumstances they do no injury. The 

 trawlers, with the large trawl, says a Mr. Nicholson who was 

 examined, not only sweep away the lines of the fishermen, but 

 also destroy the fish. At Cullercoats a man engaged in the 

 line-fishing gets all the fish on his own lines, and his wife 

 goes to town and disposes of them. The beam-trawling 

 commenced about six years ago. The number of boats and 

 the fishing population still go on steadily increasing. Beam- 

 trawling does two kinds of harm : in the first place, it 

 sweeps away the fishermen's lines ; and next, it destroys the 

 spawn. " There may be a remedy for a fisherman losing his 

 lines, but I never heard of it. I am aware that they could 

 recover damages, but the difficulty is to get hold of the 

 offending parties. The only remedy I can suggest is to do 

 away with the trawl-fishing altogether." This witness stated 

 that ten years ago he used to take sixty or seventy codfish 

 per day, and that now he cannot get one. The trawlers, 

 being able to fish in all weathers, beat the local fishermen out 

 of the field. 



Templeman, a South Shields fisherman, says that when 

 engaged in trawling he has drawn up three and a half 

 tons of fish-spawn ! He also says in his evidence that in 

 trawling one-half of the fish are dead and so hashed as to be 

 unfit for market. Has seen a ton and a half of herring- 

 .spawn offered for sale as manure. The take of fish upon the 

 Dogger Bank has decreased very much. The fishermen 

 cannot catch one quarter part there now that they used to do. 

 The number of trawl-boats on the Dogger Bank has increased 

 about 10 per cent within the last year, and yet they are 

 getting about a quarter less fish. Some of them can scarcely 

 make a living now at all. They have impoverished all other 

 places, and now they have come here, and in a short time 



