292 BRITISH FISHERIES 



1. Because it is economically wasteful, inasmuch 

 as they are of little or no value when caught by 

 the inshore trawler or shrimper, and the price 

 which they would have brought, if caught a year 

 or two later, would be comparatively high ; and 



2. Because in catching them we are destroying 

 animals which have never spawned, and are so 

 reducing the stock of eggs destined to keep up 

 the plaice population of the sea. 



Now, this argument will probably turn out to 

 be quite a sound one, and if we knew no more, 

 it would be enough to justify legislation, in a 

 provisional sense at least. It is necessary, however, 

 to point out that it is by no means so firmly 

 established by investigation as might be desired. 

 Theories in biological matters, when they have 

 been stated and have come to be repeated in books 

 and memoirs, often become so generally believed 

 that the need for verification by and by becomes 

 less apparent. Now, however desirable it may be 

 to verify any theories of migration, spawning, 

 distribution, and the like, from a purely scientific 

 point of view alone, this is all the more desirable 

 when they are to form the bases of restrictions on 

 methods of fishing. No one familiar with the 

 literature of sea-fishery science will say that those 

 theories with which we are now concerned have 

 been sufficiently verified by observation and ex- 

 periment. Only one thorough investigation has 

 been made with the object of determining the 



