FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 277 



fishermen are naturally loathe to recognise this fact. Living 

 as they do from hand to mouth, they can scarcely be ex- 

 pected readily to acquiesce in a cessation of fishing for 

 perhaps six months, or longer, in order that in the, to them, 

 remote future of a year or two there may possibly be more 

 fish. For the same reason, necessity compels them to 

 object to all restrictions, wise or unwise. In the case of 

 small protected areas the coincidence of the interests of 

 fishermen with those of fish protection are at once brought 

 within the grasp of the perception of at least the grantees 

 of the area. The only injurious effects protected areas may 

 have will be the restrictions they impose on the rights of 

 fishermen, other than grantees, such as trawlers ; if, how- 

 ever, the areas are small, the sea is so large that the pro- 

 tection extended over them need not unduly favour fisher- 

 men who are grantees to the detriment of others who are 

 not. In regard to the suggested proclamation of deep-sea 

 spawning grounds as protected areas, it is improbable that 

 at present anything can be done. Their exact locality 

 must first be accurately discovered, and then, if an Inter- 

 national Convention can be obtained, they may possibly be 

 worth the expense of protection. In any case, on large 

 spawning grounds and outside territorial waters, the evi- 

 dence of the fish supply certainly appears to indicate that 

 the interests of fishermen deserve to preponderate over 

 those of fish protection. 



It will thus be seen that indirect methods of fish pro- 

 tection, such as restrictions on meshes, and on modes of 

 fishing, have ceased. Fish are, in fact, now directly pro- 

 tected under either the principle of close-time, or that of 

 contraband, or that of protected areas. Fishermen are 

 neither statute nor placard readers, and if the different re- 

 strictions now contained in different statutes and in different 



