TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 721 



to 1883 no statistics of a reliable kind, other than those of herrings and salted 

 fishes, were available to guide the Legislature as to whether marine fisheries were 

 diminishing, stationary, or increasing. This anomalous state of things permitted 

 indulgence in exaggerated statements as to the scarcity of fishes, and the decline, 

 or, as it was said, impending ruin of the fisheries. While thus a very great im- 

 provement had been made, the returns were far from being complete. They give 

 the greater part of the fishes caught, but left many unreported. If anything is 

 national property it is the saa, and it ought to be comparatively an easy task 

 to give an account of its stewardship. 



In the scientific report to the Royal Commission of 1884 the closing of certain 

 bays against beam and otter trawling was indicated thus: — 'The experiment of 

 allowing a bay having a definite boundary and suitable for observation to remain 

 unfished for several years either by line, trawl, or stake-net would perhaps be 

 more satisfactory' (than a close time). 'Its fish fauna would be carefully 

 examined at closure, and frequently during the period, and the general increase 

 in size, emigration, and immigration of the fishes noted. Advantage might be 

 taken at the same time to increase the number of its valuable food-fishes, e.g., 

 turbot and soles, by artificial means. Such an experiment would give a valuable 

 basis for future legislation, tend to increase our knowledge of the food-fishes in a 

 remarkable degree, and would be worthy of the interests which this country has 

 in the department of sea fisheries.' It was afterwards arranged to leave out the 

 line fishermen, since many of the older men with small boats would have suffered 

 hardship ; and, after some years' observations, the Fishery Board decided to close 

 all the water within the three-mile limit, besides certain larger areas. These 

 closures were made, rightly or wrongly, on the faith of the scientific experiments 

 made by the Board. The investigations also showed from 1884 onwards that the 

 three-mile limit was insuflicient to protect the spawning fishes, which, as a rule, 

 were beyond that area. Investigation has also cleared up the migrations of fishes. 

 In shallow bays ripe plaice are seldom found, almost all occurring in the deeper 

 water beyond the three-mile limit. Yet the number of young plaice in such areas 

 is prodigious, the eggs and young being wafted into the shallower water. There 

 they grow till they reach a size of 10 to 13 inches, when they seek the outer 

 waters, in which to attain maturity and to grow to full size. This explains 

 the occurrence of the enormous number of these fishes in so limited an area, as, for 

 instance, in St. Andrews Bay, and their survival after the use of the most exten- 

 sive and persistent means of capture. Similarly, while the cod spawns are in 

 the off-shore waters, the very young forms, ranging from \ in. to an inch, appear 

 in the in-shore grounds in June, haunt the borders of the tidal rocks for some 

 time, and again return to breed in deep water. On the other hand, the very young 

 haddock is an off-shore fish ; and so is the very young ling, the latter, when 

 from three to seven inches, migrating shorewards and returning to deep water for 

 adult life. Scientific investigation has shown the enormous fecundity of food- 

 fishes, as well as the provision by which only a portion of the roe ripens at a 

 given time. With wise regulations, therefore, our waters might always be relied 

 on for supplies. We have largely increased our knowledge of the sizes of" the respec- 

 tive sexes of marine fishes at maturity, and the development of the eggs in the 

 roe, and their numerical proportion to each other. In this work no one had done 

 more valuable service than l)r. Fulton, the Scientific Superintendent of the Fishery 

 Board for Scotland, and the subject has been further elucidated by Mr. J. T. Cun- 

 ningham, Mr. Calderwood, and Mr. Holt. Such knowledge in regard to Scotland 

 made it clear that the legislative proposal of a size-limit of 10 or 12 inches — below 

 which fishes were to be unsaleable — would be no protection, for instance, to a ripe 

 plaice, though it might tend to preserve the species till it reached somewhat deeper 

 waters. No feature, again, has been more prominently brought out by scientific 

 investigation than the fact that the eggs of almost all our food-fishes float, or are 

 pelagic. Their wide distribution is thus provided for, and they are beyond the 

 possibility of injury by net or trawl. In 1884 both the eggs and the young of food- 

 fishes were, as a rule, wrapt in mystery. Now the eggs and larval stages of most 

 have been described and figured, notably by Professor E. Prince, Mr. Cunningham, 



1895. 3 a 



