SEA FISHERIES 137 



Committee of 1900 reported that " the subject 

 of the diminution of the fish supply is a very 

 pressing one, and that the situation is going from 

 bad to worse." 



The evidence which induced this change of view 

 rests partly on experiment, partly on statistics. 

 Although this view is possibly and even prob- 

 ably correct, none of the older sources of 

 evidence is altogether satisfactory. One loss 

 which used to be charged to the trawl, but of 

 which it has been found not guilty, is that it 

 destroyed the fish-spawn, but as we have seen 

 the ova of all the prime food-fish float on the 

 surface with the exception of those of the herring, 

 and the herring is a fish that shows no sign of 

 diminishing in number. In 1886 the Scottish 

 Fishery Board began experiments to determine 

 whether or no the number and size of fish were 

 diminishing on a certain limited area. The Firth 

 of Forth and St. Andrew's Bay were closed 

 against commercial trawling, and divided into 

 stations. Once a month the ship employed by 

 the Board visited each station and trawled over 

 a given area. The fish taken were counted and 

 measured. For the first few years the results 

 indicated an increase of food-fish, but taking a 



