128 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



Investigations have already shown, in areas where 

 sharply contrasted ocean currents are constantly 

 striving for the mastery, as they are in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Shetland Isles. The Gulf Stream 

 could more justly be abused for the comparative 

 failure of the Shetland fishery in 1906 than the 

 Norwegian whalers, whose operations have 

 probably done no more injury to the herring 

 fishery than they did in 1905 or the year before. 



I propose to confine myself in this article 

 mainly to the North Sea, and from another point 

 of view mainly to the English fishing authorities 

 as opposed to the Scottish and Irish. The funda- 

 mental and central question to be settled is 

 whether there is diminution in the fish generally 

 or in any particular species of food-fish in the 

 North Sea area by far the most productive of 

 our fishing grounds. If the answer is affirmative, 

 the further questions arise What is the cause 

 of this diminution ? and, How can it be arrested ? 



In 1863 Professor Huxley, Mr. J. Caird, and 

 Mr. G. Shaw Lefevre were constituted a Royal 

 Commission to inquire (i) whether or not the 

 value of the fisheries was increasing, stationary, 

 or decreasing ; (2) whether or not the existing 

 methods of fishing did permanent harm to the 



