INDUSTRIES 



poration now possess jurisdiction over the greater 

 part of Poole Harbour, save in certain portions of 

 the Wareham Channel, held by the Poole Oyster 

 Fishery Company, and the fishery known as 

 South Deep, which is apparently common ground. 

 The corporation employ a water-bailifF, whose 

 duty it is to control the fishing, especially with 

 regard to infringements of the rule forbidding the 

 taking of oysters under the prescribed dimen- 

 sions. Licences to dredge are issued yearly at 

 fixed sums. In 1 893-4 only seven such licences 

 were applied for, fees and tolls in that year 

 amounting to _|^5 15J., the oysters taken amount- 

 ing to 8,346. In 1894-5 the numbers were 

 33,702. There are no storage pits in connexion 

 with the company's fishery, the oysters being 

 promptly disposed of in the best and most acces- 

 sible markets. The best grounds for dredging 

 are considered to be near Saltern's Pier, Brown- 

 sea Quay, and Stone Island.^' The operations 

 of the company are largely those of laying down 

 oysters in Wareham Channel brought from East 

 River, Caen Bay, and the Solent, a ' Several ' 

 Oyster and Mussel Order having been obtained 

 from the Board of Trade. There are a few 

 private storage pits at Poole for the growing, 

 fattening, and storage of oysters laid down in 

 spring for the following autumn.^' 



Oysters are hand - dredged at Wyke from 

 October to March.'' 



Other shell fisheries"" on the coast are for 

 cockles, which are picked all the year round at 

 Poole, where periwinkles are also gathered from 

 September to April. Swanage has pots for crabs 

 and lobsters from April to October, and for 

 prawns from January to April. The latest re- 

 ports from this station, however, are to the effect 

 that * crabs were scarcer, and are apparently be- 

 coming more so each year.' ''' Crabs, lobsters, 

 and prawns are caught at Chapman's Pool by 

 pots and set nets ; crabs and lobsters at War- 

 barrow in pots all the year ; crabs and lobsters 

 at Lulworth all the year, prawns from September 

 to the end of the year ; crabs, lobsters, and 

 prawns at Weymouth are taken by pots from 

 April to September, escallops being dredged from 

 December to March.'' At Portland the crab 

 and lobster fishing season is from February to 

 October ; at Portland Bill, all the year. Fishing 

 at this station, it may be mentioned in passing, 

 is said to be on the decline, owing, it is thought, 

 to the presence of octopi, and the carrying on of 



gun practice in the vicinity.™ Burton has a 

 fishery for crabs and lobsters in pots from April 

 to August, Lyme Regis from May to July, and 

 from April to September, whilst prawns are 

 caught all the year round." 



The quantity and value of fish landed at each 

 fishing station in Dorset in 1905 is as fol- 

 lows : — ''' 



The latest reports to hand regarding the Dorset 

 fishery may fitly bring this article to a close : — 

 In the case of most of the fishing stations the 

 industry is a 'declining' one. 'Unsettled 

 weather ' also has had an unfavourable influence 

 upon the fishing, whilst the withdrawal of the 

 herring from these waters continues ; in the case 

 of Lyme Bay, for instance, herrings ' did not 

 seem to enter in any large shoals.' Very few 

 herrings were caught at Poole with drift nets." 



The modern Dorset fisherman, according to 

 Mr. Aflalo, 



displays an apathy in fishery matters which can only 

 be attributed to the paucity of fish in these waters, as 

 well perhaps as to the paramount agricultural interest 

 and the desire to cultivate the summer visitor.'* 



" Loca/ Got't. Bd. Rep. 1896, p. 63. 



^ Ibid. " Ibid. 



"* For information contained in this paragraph and 

 the following table the author is indebted to Mr. 

 Martyr, of the Bd. of Fisheries and Agric. 



'^ ^nn. Rep. Sea Fisheries, 1905, p. 60. 



'' Ibid. 59. 



'» Ibid. 60. 



" Ibid. 



" Ibid. 



" Jnn Rep. Sea Fisheries, 1905, pp. 59-60. 



" Aflalo, Sea Fisiing Industry, 266-7. 



359 



