IMPOVERISHMENT OF THE GROUNDS 253 



become mature at a relatively small size, and may 

 escape the trawl-nets. The inshore waters are 

 therefore replenished also from the offshore grounds. 

 Probably, also, the dabs benefit to a greater extent 

 from protection than the plaice and lemon soles, 

 because they compete naturally with the latter 

 species. 



The Scottish Fishery Board experiments led, 

 then, to conclusions entirely different from those 

 which were anticipated. It was expected that 

 they would indicate that trawling operated in 

 reducing the fish population of the area on which 

 it was practised, and that if it were discontinued, 

 the population on this area would increase again. 

 This is most probably the case, and it is very 

 likely that the immediate increase of flat and 

 round fishes in the Firth of Forth and St Andrews 

 Bay did actually prove it. But what the whole 

 series of trawling experiments did prove was in 

 all probability this : that the continual and grow- 

 ing exploitation of the offshore fishing grounds 

 was producing a certain impoverishment of the 

 inshore fisheries ; and that the trawl-fishing of 

 the ten years during which the experiments were 

 carried on had rendered the sea less productive 

 than was formerly the case. 



It is as well to point out that this method of 

 experimental trawling had serious limitations. It 

 was thought at one time that, by making periodical 

 hauls with a trawl-net on a portion of a fishing 



