SEA FISHERIES 131 



ing herrings. They recommended the policy of 

 opening the ports and the territorial waters to 

 foreign seamen. They regarded the sea as free 

 to all, just as the International Congress of 

 Lawyers has lately declared the air to be. They 

 found no reason to believe the supply of fish was 

 diminishing. They were aware of the enormous 

 destruction, especially in immature fish, conse- 

 quent upon the methods of fishing, but regarded 

 this destruction as infinitesimal compared with 

 what normally goes on in nature, and held that 

 it did no permanent harm to the fisheries. They 

 recommended that all laws regulating fishing 

 in the open seas be repealed. The Sea-fisheries 

 Act of 1868 carried these recommendations into 

 effect, and rendered it possible for a fisherman 

 to earn his living " how, when, and where he 

 pleased/' 



But since 1868 much has changed. Beam- 

 trawls continued to be increasingly used up till 

 1893, since which date they have been replaced 

 in steam-trawlers by the more powerful otter- 

 trawl. There has been an immense increase in 

 the employment of steam vessels, as is shown 

 in the figures for the ten years 1883-1892. In 

 the former year the number of steamers was 225, 



