FISHERIES 



23 



MiKOR British Fisheries. — Crab and Lobster Fisheries. 

 — The deiuaiid for these crustaceans lias increased so niucli 

 w'ithin the last few years that the supply from the coasts 

 of IJrituiu has been insufficient, and from 400,000 to 

 600,000 lobsters have for some little time been annually 

 imported from Norway. They travel without much loss 

 in vessels fitted »itb wella ; and for journeys lasting no 

 longer than two or three days they will live very well if 

 packed with wet seaweed in boxes. The places from which 

 the principal home supplies are sent to the large markets 

 being now mostly within easy reach of railways, there is 

 little occasion to use welled vessels for collecting thein.^ 

 The English markets are mainly supplied from Cornwall 

 an 1 the south coast of England, from the Orkneys and 

 Hebrides in Scotland, and from the west coast of Ireland. 

 Besides these about 200,000 come from Franco, the fishery 

 for them being in the neighbourliooil of Cherbourg, and a 

 few from Sweden. The means adopted for catching lobsters 

 and crabs in the British Islands are either circular basket- 

 work " pots " with a mouse-trap entrance at the top, or 

 cages covered with netting and with one or two entrances 

 as in the pots. These cages are commonly called " creels." 

 Cr>ibs are taken in most abundance in the west and south 

 of England, and more or less generally on the east coast, 

 and in Scotland and Ireland, those from parts of Devon 

 and Cornwall being the finest which are sent to market. 

 There is a general disposition on the part of the fishermen 

 to submit to some law limiting the size of both crabs and 

 lobsters to be offered for sale, so as to put a stop to the 

 falling oflf in these fisheries, which is apparent on some 

 parts of the coast. A close time is objected to, as no monti 

 in the year is generally suitable, and " berried " lobsters 

 are so valuable for the market that if they had to be 

 returned to the sea the fishermen would lose a great part 

 of their present profits. A limit to the size allowed to 

 be sold seems therefore to bo the best means of protecting 

 these fisheries ; and such a law is now enforced on the 

 coast of Norfolk. 



Shrimp aivl Prawn Fisheries. — The most important of 

 these fisheries are carried on in the estuary of the ThameSj 

 Pegwell Bay near llamsgiite, and ilorecambe Bay on the 

 Lancashire coast, but they are more or less general wherever 

 suitable ground is met with Leigh is the headquarters of 

 the Thames shrimpers. They fish with a net mounted very 

 much like a bcam-trawl, but having a long, straight piece 

 of wood at the lower part of the mouth to work over the 

 ground instead of the ordinary ground-rope. This is in 

 fact like the common form of hand-shrimping net, but 

 80 fitted as to be towed instead of pushed. Ordinary 

 trawls are used for prawns or " red shrimps," and in 

 some other places for true shrimps. The supply of 

 shrinips from Leigh sometimes amounts to 2000 gallons 

 in a day. 



Shellfish: — Oysters, Mussels, Whelh, Perimnkles. — The 

 oy.ster fisheries of the British Lslands have been in a failing 

 condition for some few years past, owing to a deficiency of 

 spat, the cause of wliich has been the subject of active 

 controversy, not only between rival theorists, but also among 

 practical tisliernien. Over-fishing has been regarded by 

 many as the main cause of the decrease, and it may pos- 

 sibly have helped to make matters worse than they would 

 otherwise have been ; but it is difficult to explain in this 

 manner the fact that, in J'!ngland, Scotland, and Ireland, 

 there iiaj been a general failure of spat for some years past, 

 on all kinds of ground and under every condition, in public 

 and private bud-i, and whether they have been carefully 

 protected, as in the case of old established private com- 

 panies, or left to the working of the general public, except 



• Report o/ Commission on Crab and Lubaler Fisheries, p. U. (1877). 



during a definite close time, more or less enforced. In 

 Ireland, where there are regulations for close timp, and 

 restrictions as to the size of oysters allowed to be sold, 

 and where in some cases all fishing has been stopped for 

 two or three years, the decrease of oysters has been as 

 decided as in England or Scotland ; and Mr Blake, until 

 recently one of the insiiectors of Irish fisheries, and chair- 

 man of the oyster commission in 18(38, stated in his evidence 

 given before the select committee of the House of Com- 

 mons in 187C that the decline in the oyster fisheries was 

 due to the bad spatting seasons, and to the great increase 

 of dredging ; " but if the siiatting went on as it formerly 

 did, the amount of dredging would not be of much import- 

 ance." 



The bulk of Englisli supplies is obtained from the oyster 

 beds of private companies, of which the Whitstublc conifjany 

 is ilie most ancient, having worked from time inimeinorial on 

 their present ground on the south shore of the entrance to 

 the Thames. In 1793 they purchased from the lord of tho 

 manor the exclusive right of fishing there. The company 

 is a corporation of fishermen governed by elected members 

 of their own body. Tho men are .Id for the daily 

 work done by them, and each member of the company also 

 receives his share of the profits on tho sale of the oysters, 

 A great part of their employment, besides dredging and 

 keeping their own ground clean and free from vermin, con- 

 sists in dredging for spat iu the public portion of the river 

 for tho purpose of layiiig it down on their own beds. A 

 general failure of spat, sucli as there has been in recent 

 years, is therefore not only felt by them on their own 

 liuiited ground, but they suffer from the scarcity in what 

 may be called their reserves. The Whitstable company is, 

 however, only one among many which occupy the .shores of 

 the Thames estuary and the small rivers wliich flow into 

 it. The oysters thus laid down or bred in these situations 

 become remarkablo for tho thinness of their shells, and the 

 good flavour ani comparatively large size of their contents, 

 and are what are known as " natives." There are numerous 

 com})auies or individual proprietors engaged in cultivating 

 oysters on various parts of the coasts, but at the present 

 time they are, we believe, all more or less suffering from 

 deficiency of spat. Channel or deep-sea oysters are 

 generally large and coarse, and do not fetch more than one 

 tent'" of the price given for the more delicate " natives." 

 Attehipts at the artificial cultivation of oysters have not 

 met with much success. 



Mussels and whelks, while in some request for food 

 among the lower classes, are in especial demand for 

 the purposes of fish-bait, and tho value of mussels in 

 this respect has recently led to a more careful protec- 

 tion of the older banks, and some attempts at the cultiva- 

 tion of new ones. Whelks are particularly valuabl ' 

 tho North Sea cod fishery, and a number of vessels p- 

 Grimsby are regularly engaged in fishing for them. .. 

 mode of catching them is by means of shallow hoop-nets 

 baited with refuse fish, and sunk to the bottom on suitable 

 ground ; in these the whelks collect in large numbers, and 

 are caught without any difficulty. A considerable supply 

 is also obtained from the ouster dredgers; and at the mouth 

 of the Thames they are caught largely by using " trots " or 

 bulters — long-lines of small dimensions; but instead of 

 having baited hooks, they have common small shore-crabs 

 threaded on the snoods, about twenty on each ; these are 

 seized by the whelks and so firmly held whilst being 

 devoured thit the line may easUy be hauled in without 

 disturbing the numbers found on every snood. Feri- 

 winkles are all procured between tide marks, and are of 

 course collected by hand. The London market is mainly 

 supplied from the western islands of Scotland, the Orkneys, 

 the Sbetlands, and parts of the Irish coast. 



