GREA T BRIT A IN. 43 



In America the artificial propagation of sea fish is carried 

 on in order to keep the stock in the ocean sufficient for the 

 requirements of the people. Here everything is allowed to 

 drift as it can, the size of the mesh of the nets is decreasing, 

 and young fish as well as others, useless as food, are being 

 captured for bait, while, as I shall subsequently show, 

 our flat fishes are rapidly diminishing, enormous numbers 

 of the fry being destroyed. The question must be some 

 day considered whether a close time for sea fishes will not 

 have to be instituted. By this I do not mean a general 

 close season, extending to all fishes, but a prohibition 

 against trawling within three miles of the shore during such 

 times as the young of the more valuable fishes are about. 

 The nurseries of the flat fishes, one would suppose, ought 

 certainly to be protected during certain seasons. Also the 

 possession of some species below a certain size ought to be 

 prohibited. No regulations affecting fisheries upwards of 

 three miles from the shore could be carried out unless 

 under the sanction of an international agreement. 



Before passing on from this subject, it will be as well to 

 point out why it is that proposals for regulating fisheries 

 may hardly be expected from fishermen. We may be 

 considered to have two classes of fisheries, one such as 

 lobsters and crabs, where a supply from foreign ports keeps 

 down the price, and, therefore, the fisherman finds it 

 necessary to have a fair stock in order that he may be able 

 to send his captures to market at the restricted price.* The 



* In February, 1880, a prohibition was issued that no berried lobsters, 

 crabs under 4.2 inches across the shell, and no soft crabs were to be 

 taken for three years along certain portions of the Norfolk coast ; 

 while a close time was to exist from June 25th to July 25th inclusive. 

 This regulation was issued at the request of the fishermen ; for since 

 about 1870 crabs and lobsters had been captured, irrespective of their 



