CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HERRING-FISHERY. 329 



8th, The herring fishery sliall be held to be carried on 

 wherever herrings are being caught ; and every net other 

 than drift-nets which may be used for the purpose of 

 taking herrings in contravention of the 6th section of the 

 Act 14 and 15 Vict., cap. 26, shall, during the time of the 

 herring fishery, be removed and laid aside, or shall be 

 liable to be seized and forfeited, and the owner thereof 

 proceeded against accordingly, and such net forfeited 

 and destroyed, and the possessor subjected to the penalty 

 imposed by the existing Acts. 



9th, Her Majesty may appoint five additional Commis- 

 sioners of the Fishery Board besides the Commissioners 

 appointed under previous Acts. 



1860. — The prejudice still manifested by the fishermen 

 generally against beam-trawling has been strongly ex- 

 pressed, by the Claddagh fishermen at Galway in Ireland, 

 among other places, who maintain that the herrings are 

 annually diminishing in Galway Bay, where they were pre- 

 viously abundant ; and (as the quality there is rather above 

 the ordinary description of herrings fished on the Irish 

 coasts), it is very desirable that due inquiry be made, and 

 proper legislation applied. It is of much importance that 

 we should ascertain the advantages obtained, and the 

 injury done, by beam-trawling. If it can be established 

 that the process of such trawling breaks or scares away 

 the herring shoals, and if the beam-trawls fall on, and dis- 

 perse and destroy the deposited spawn or young herring 

 or fry, the trawling ought to be prohibited at such places 

 and periods when the injury occurs. To show to what 

 extent the trawling is believed to be injurious by the 

 fishermen in Ireland, we here give extracts of the re- 

 ports of the Commissioners of Fisheries for Ireland for 

 1860, by which it appears that the spirit of resistance has 



