DESTRUCTION OF IMMATURE FISH 285 



whitebait, the immature products have a directly 

 commercial value, and are sought after without 

 regard to the adult animals into which they 

 develop. But the latter must also be preserved in 

 sufficient numbers to keep up the stock of the 

 immature stages ; and when both immature and 

 adult animals are of marketable value, regulations 

 must take account of the relative value of each, 

 and of the relative demand for them. 



Even admitting that the destruction of im- 

 mature fishes is economically wasteful, it remains 

 to consider the further question whether restric- 

 tions on their capture would lead to the increase 

 of the adult and (generally) most marketable 

 stages. This is not necessarily the case. In a 

 mussel-bed on the foreshore, for instance, which 

 extends from some distance below high-tide mark 

 down to the extreme low-water line, we may 

 generally find that, the higher up the beach we 

 go, the smaller and more stunted are the animals. 

 By legal standards these are immature shell-fish, 

 and in many localities they may not be taken for 

 food nor any other commercial purpose. But no 

 amount of protection will enable such small mussels 

 to grow to the statutory size (say 2 inches in 

 length), because they are in an unsuitable environ- 

 ment. It has to be considered, then, whether the 

 same may not be the case in many other forms of 

 fishing in which there is an apparently wasteful 

 destruction of immature fishes. Every such case 



