66 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



want offish. He said that when he was a young man 

 there were nine of them in the family, and for twopence 

 his wife could buy enough haddock to give them a 

 dinner ; but at the time he spoke the same quantity 

 could not be bought for less than ninepence or tenpence. 

 Another witness said that the trawlers not only swept 

 away the lines, but also destroyed the fish, and the only 

 remedy was that trawl-fishing should be abolished. He 

 added that, although ten years previously he used to take 

 sixty or seventy codfish a day, still, at the time he gave 

 evidence, when trawling had been in existence for about 

 six years, he could not take one. A South Shields 

 fisherman stated that the number of trawling vessels 

 on the Dogger Bank had increased ten per cent, during 

 the year, and yet the smacksmen were getting about a 

 quarter less fish, and some of them scarcely made a 

 living. A smack would sometimes catch five tons of 

 fish a day ; but the average was a ton and a half. He 

 declared that the fish caught in the trawl were not fit for 

 the market, as the insides were broken and the galls 

 burst and ran through them. Much evidence of the 

 same sort was given, some of the witnesses declaring 

 that not only was the fish diminishing in quantity, but 

 also deteriorating in size. 



According to the custom of all commissions and 

 inquiries, evidence in direct opposition to that which 

 had been tendered was given, for experienced fisher- 

 men declared that trawling did not damage the industry, 

 and that in it was the only real hope for the fishing of 

 the future. Some of the witnesses gave valuable 

 information relating to the fishing during the early 

 part of last century. One of them, who had fifty 



