192 ANIMAL LIFE AND HUMAN PROGRESS 



Most people have very little idea of the magnitude of our 

 British fisheries, and of the rate at which they were increasing 

 of recent years before the war or of the predominating 

 position to which our fishing fleets had attained. 



In 1914 our fisheries made up nearly one-half of the total 

 for all countries of North- West Europe, and nearly 70 per cent 

 of the North Sea fisheries alone. The total produce of our 

 sea-fisheries has more than doubled in the last quarter of a 

 century, and the average of the last few years before the war 

 amounted to over a million tons (about 23,500,000 cwts.), 

 bringing in about 15,000,000 when landed, and valued at 

 probably three times as much, say nearly 50,000,000 sterling, 

 by the time it reached the consumers. 



This great increase in the amount of fish brought to our 

 markets has been due to improvements in the boats and in 

 the methods of fishing, and to an enormous extension of the 

 fishing grounds. The picturesque old sailing trawler of 

 Brixham, working in local waters with a small beam-trawl, 

 has developed into the ugly but highly efficient modern steam- 

 trawlers, equipped with huge otter-trawls and making lengthy 

 voyages to Iceland and the White Sea in the north or the 

 Canaries and the coast of Morocco to the south, conducting 

 their operations, in fact, over an area of more than a million 

 square miles and down to depths of 200 fathoms. 



All this applies to the time before the war. We know how 

 splendidly the men of our fishing fleet have responded to the 

 call of duty, and the invaluable service they have rendered 

 in patrolling our home waters, in hunting down submarines 

 and in constant mine-sweeping during recent years. It is 

 supposed that about ten per cent of our fine steam-trawlers 

 and drifters, and their gallant crews, have now been lost. 

 Their place will not be easy to fill. 



As a natural result of the war conditions the produce of our 

 sea-fisheries has dropped to less than a third of what it was : 

 the total catch during war-time has averaged about 7,000,000 

 cwts. per annum. Very many millions of fish have therefore 

 been left uncaught in the sea to grow and propagate, and 

 it is an interesting speculation whether this unforeseen and 



