CHAPTER VI 



PRACTICAL METHODS OF INCREASING THE SUPPLY OF 



FISH 



IN recent years much attention has been devoted to measures 

 either proposed or actually adopted for maintaining or increasing 

 the supply of the most valuable kinds of fishes. These measures 

 consist either in the prevention of practices on the part of fisher- 

 men which involve the destruction of the fish while young and 

 undersized, or in the artificial propagation of the fish. We will 

 consider these two classes of measures in succession. 



With regard to the protection of young fish we have to con- 

 sider not only whether a particular restriction or regulation will 

 increase the supply of adult fish, but how it will affect the 

 fishermen. It may be argued that any improvement in the 

 supply must benefit the fishermen more than any other class of 

 the community, but this is evidently not the case in certain 

 instances. For example, if shrimping is prohibited on account 

 of the destruction of small flat-fishes which it involves, the direct 

 and immediate result to the shrimpers is certainly not profit but 

 loss. In the application of a measure of restriction therefore, 

 even though it appears certain to increase the supply of the 

 most valuable fish, due consideration must be given to its 

 immediate effect on the men engaged in the fishing industries. 



Theoretically the protection of young fish is extremely 

 simple ; it is certain that if we require the greatest number of 

 fish above a certain size, we should kill none below that size. 

 In dealing with sheep, leaving questions of pasture or ac- 

 cidental death out of consideration, to refrain from killing 

 the lambs is equally simple in practice. But it is not 



