CHAPTER XIII 



FISHERY STATISTICS 



IT will be seen that any discussion of sea- 

 fisheries problems, such as I have attempted 

 these pages, involves constant reference to statistic; 

 information. The question of the impoverisl 

 ment of the fishing grounds, for instance, woulc 

 be a comparatively simple one, if we could obtain 

 full and accurate figures showing, for a series of 

 years, the exact number of vessels and fishermen 

 working on the fishing grounds, the nature and 

 extent of the fishing gear, and the quantities of 

 fish of each species and of certain size-limits 

 landed per year from the areas in question. Such 

 data, however, as we can obtain are very imperfect, 

 and are in many cases of very questionable value ; 

 and it therefore happens that our conclusions as 

 to whether the yield of the fishing grounds is 

 increasing or decreasing are, at the best, deductions 

 from a great number of considerations, and cannot 

 be regarded as having more than provisional value. 

 Any proposed legislation which attempts to check 



222 



