104 BRITISH FISHERIES 



prawns, crabs, and lobsters. Very full powers are 

 conferred on them for this purpose by the Sea- 

 Fisheries Regulation Acts and by the Sea-Fisheries 

 (Shell-fish) Act of 1877. Certain sizes for mol- 

 luscs, crabs, and lobsters are laid down, under which 

 it is illegal to remove the specified shell-fish (usually 

 oysters, mussels, cockles, crabs, and lobsters) from 

 a fishery. Crabs and lobsters may not be taken, 

 except for bait, when " soft," that is, when the 

 animal has cast its hard shell or exoskeleton. 

 Close seasons are prescribed for oysters and mussels, 

 and periwinkles in some cases. Finally, the kind 

 of apparatus used for catching these animals may 

 be defined, and certain objectionable forms may be 

 prohibited entirely. Local fishery committees may 

 also spend public money in restocking a public 

 fishery for molluscs or crustaceans, and they may 

 also undertake the artificial culture of these fish. 

 The object in these regulations is to prevent the 

 capture of immature or breeding shell-fish, and 

 to provide for the maintenance of a sufficient 

 stock on the fishing grounds, so as to ensure the 

 permanence of the fishery. 



The powers of regulation possessed by the local 

 fishery committees are therefore ample, but in some 

 respects they are curiously limited. Thus, they 

 have no powers to restrict or to interfere in any 

 way with the methods of fishing in the areas under 

 the jurisdiction of the Boards of Salmon Conserva- 

 tors, or in those cases, which are not uncommon, 



