220 PROTECTION OF ANIMAL LIFE 



America liberated over 535 million fry and over 18 million 

 fingerlings, yearlings, or adults in streams debouching on the 

 Pacific, while since the inception of the work of hatching, 

 they have distributed 6291 millions of fry. 



SEA FISHERIES 



The history of the protection of sea-fisheries is compli- 

 cated by infinite variety of limitations, most of which have 

 now fallen into desuetude. At the present time, white fish 

 and Herrings are protected mainly by regulations fixing a 

 minimum size of mesh in nets used for their capture, and by 

 the institution of reserves the three-mile limit and certain 

 special areas such as the Moray Firth and the Firth of 

 Clyde within which specific modes of fishing, for example 

 trawling, are prohibited. 



MOLLUSCAN AND CRUSTACEAN SHELL FlSH 



A few species of molluscan and crustacean shell-fish have 

 been protected with a view to increasing the stock available 

 for food. Oyster beds and Mussel scalps are regarded as 

 private property and are protected as such. Oysters are 

 further subject to a close season extending from i4th May 

 or 1 5th June till i4th August, according to whether they 

 occur on inshore or deep-sea beds. 



Of Crustacean shell-fish, Crabs and Lobsters are by 

 far the most important from an economic point of view 

 (see p. 153). The protective regulations vary in different 

 Fishery Districts but a minimum size of 4^ inches across 

 the back for Edible Crabs and of 8 inches length for Lobsters 

 is enforced, and as a rule, the taking of crabs with spawn 

 and "hen lobsters in berry" is prohibited. 



Such regulations, while they have had, in most cases, 

 no appreciable effect in increasing beyond their original 

 numbers the stocks of the chief food animals of the country, 

 have had the negative but highly important effect of pre- 

 venting a serious depletion of these stocks, a result which 

 would inevitably have followed promiscuous destruction of 

 creatures of such great economic value. 



