Holt — Surmy of Fishing Grounds, West Coast of Ireland. 475 



greater supply of fish which he brings to the market. But it is only when we come to 

 contrast the beam with the otter trawls in use amongst local fishermen in various parts 

 of the coast that we find an essential difference in the destructiveness of steam^ and 

 sailing trawlers. I shall have occasion to refer to this later. We will now consider 

 legislation as regards mesh. Now it is obvious that a net which would let all immature 

 Turhot escape, would catch very little else except skates. I have endeavoured to show 

 that the ordinary trawl-mesh does not capture a large percentage of immature Soles, 

 whilst the patent net we used caught none at all. A net, however, that would retain 

 only mature Plaice would be almost useless. 



Dr. Fulton says, in substance, that beyond the biological statement that a Plaice 

 under 12 inches (under fifteen inches in my own opinion), a Haddock under 10 inches, 

 and a turbot under about 18 inches, are immature ; "there is the economic side, "which 

 must necessarily be the fijial appeal." Putting aside the case of the Herring, I would 

 submit that there is no such appeal, or rather that the biological and the economical 

 interests are identical. No doubt many immature fish are marketable ; but we are face 

 to face with the fact that the supply of prime fish is diminishing. It is acknowledged 

 that remedial measures must be taken, and the consensus of opinion points to any 

 measure that will protect the immature forms. What further need of argument ? 

 It is surely a self-evident fact that they must be protected, else has the fable of 

 the goose with the golden eggs been written in vain. 



The difficulty is to find any method for preventing their destruction. Fulton's 

 opinion is that the limitation of the mesh will not alone solve the problem, and I think 

 the arguments he advances are not to be controverted. Moreover, the designing of a 

 mesh or of a trawl which would retain only fish c^ a given size, and yet be sufficiently 

 eflective on larger fish to meet with the approbation of fishermen, does not appear 

 to be an easy matter, though probably a practical net maker, taking advantage of such 

 steps as have already been accomplished in this direction, might be able to overcome 

 most of the difficulties. In the meantime it is very'desii-able that investigations 

 should be made in order to establish the relationships, if any, between the size of the 

 mesh and the size of fish caught thereby. Experiments of this nature form part of the 

 programme of the forthcoming investigations of the Marine Biological Association in 

 the North Sea. 



It appears to me that if we are successful in establishing such a relationship as I 

 have alluded to, much good might be done by a restriction as to the size of the mesh, 

 combined with prohibition of the sale or possession of fish under a certain size, whilst 

 even more beneficial results would be likely to follow were it possible by any means to 

 restrict the time during which a trawl should be allowed to be on the ground, especially 

 on trawling grounds which are known to be haunted by young fish. It is in fact 

 desirable on all very shallow grounds. In Downies Bay, for instance, large Plaice 

 are so abundant that it is hardly desirable to abstain, from trawling for the sake of the 

 immature forms which may be caught at the same time, if means can be adopted to 

 prevent any very great percentage of injury to the latter. I have endeavoured to 

 show that in the short hauls which we made it was usual to find Turbot, Brill, Sole, 

 and some other kinds of fish little, if at all, injured. I have no doubt that the great 

 majority of these would have survived if returned, though Mr. Cunningham found 

 that trawled Sole did not survive in the Plymouth Aquaria if the skin, had been in any 

 way abraded. This, nevertheless, is not invariably the case under natural conditions, 

 as we trawled a fine Sole which had completely recovered from a wound involving the 



1 There is, however, no reason why a steam trawler should not carry an otter trawl 

 for use on grounds where beam trawling is likely to be harmful. 



