FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 149 



as showing the increasing importance which was being 

 attached to the fisheries. 



In the meanwhile, restrictive or protective legislation in Extension of 



"protective" 

 regard to the fisheries was taking many different directions, legislation. 



and becoming more and more stringent. Besides prohi- 

 biting the use of certain instruments, it limited, at different 

 times, and in regard to different kinds of fish, the period 

 during which fish can be legally caught ; it restricted the 

 size or the mesh of nets ; it forbade the capture of fry, or 

 the destruction of spawn, or the killing of spawning fish ; 

 and it fixed a standard size under which fish might not be 

 caught or sold. At first salmon, and eventually all kinds 

 of fish, received the special attention of the Legislature, not 

 merely as an incident in the maintenance of navigation, 

 but on account of the growing importance of the fisheries 

 as a source of food supply, and apparently of the diminish- 

 ing yield of certain kinds of fish. So early as 1283, 

 13 Edw. I., Stat. I. c. 47, fixed a close time for salmon in Preservation 

 the Tees arid the rivers flowing into the Humber, from " the 

 Nativity of our Lady unto St. Martin's Day ; " and the 

 same statute prohibited the capture of " salmunculi " 

 (smolts), "from the midst of April unto the Nativity of Smolts. 

 St. John Baptist." " Conservatores " were appointed to 

 enforce this law, and subsequent Acts enlarged their 

 powers, these officers being thus the direct forerunners of 

 the Boards of Conservators appointed under the Salmon 

 Fishery Acts of the present day. The Act 13 Rich. II., 

 c. 19, established a close season for salmon in the rivers of Close time. 

 Lancashire, from " Michaelmas Day to the Purification of 

 our Lady," and prohibited at all times of the year " any nets, 

 called stalkers, and other nets or engines, whatsoever they 

 be, by the which the fry or the brood of salmon, lampreys, 

 or any other fish may in any wise be taken or destroyed." 



