APPENDIX K: KYLE — 52 — 



able, that the haddock in Germany occupies a similar position to the plaice in Holland 

 and vice versa. 



What has been said above with regard to the plaice obviously holds good here also, 

 namely, that if the fishermen caught less of the small, their fishing would be more 

 remunerative. 



If the figures given in Table XXVIII be considered in general, it will be remarked, 

 that the years 1900 and 1901 marked the maximum point reached by the average prices. 

 Taking this fact along with the information given by Table XXVI, showing the total 

 quantities, it would appear that the supply of fish has for the time being outrun the 

 demand. So far as the principal species are concerned, the supply nowadays consists 

 chiefly of the small classes of fish, as shown above, and this accounts for the decline 

 in the average prices. We may conclude, therefore, that the demand in all the countries 

 is for a better quality of fish, not a greater quantity. 



II. Statistics regarding the number of boats engaged in trawling 



from North Sea ports 



The manner in which the fishing boats are recorded in the different countries is 

 perhaps the most unsatisfactory division of the statistics with regard to the fisheries. 

 The difficulties in the way of unifying the data with regard to the' boats are indeed so 

 great, that the task has frankly been given up as impossible for the present. 



An endeavour has been made in Tables XXIX and XXX to estimate the number of 

 trawlers, sailing and steam fishing in the North Sea, as trawling is the most important 

 branch of the fisheries for the present problems. The boats engaged in the line and 

 drift-net fisheries may be left for future consideration. Some of the particular difficulties 

 are menfioned in the notes; the more general may be mentioned here. 



The first difficulty arises from the impossibility of restricting fishing boats to any 

 one particular region. For example, a large number of the steam-trawlers represented in 

 the table below, do not fish regularly in the North Sea, though they all doubtless fish 

 there occasionally. To overcome this difficulty, it is obvious that some other system 

 than the mere enumeration of the boats must be adopted, if any estimate is to be 

 obtained of the total amount of fishing in the North Sea. Such a system is already to 

 hand in that adopted by Henking (1. c), namely, the enumeration of the separate voyages 

 or the whole time away from port. A better system is, perhaps, that of the whole time 

 taken up in the actual fishing. 



The second difficulty is that, even if the total number of voyages of the steam- 

 trawlers could be obtained, with of course the quantities taken, there still remain the 

 occasional trawlers and the sailing-trawlers. An attempt has indeed be made to reduce 

 all the steam and sailing trawlers to one and the same unit, but how this is to be done 

 in the case of the occasional trawlers has not yet been considered. 



The third difficulty is, that the mere number of boats indicates comparatively little. 

 Further, it is by no means certain that all the boats given in the annual statistics have 

 really been fishing during the year. The general system is, that any new boats built 



