peesident's addeess. 30 i 



years of patient experiment and investigation, has attended the 

 labours of Mr. Armistead and others, together with the scientific 

 interest and economic importance of the subject, leads me to 

 think that some account of the present state of fisheries and fish- 

 culture in Great Britain may not be out of place in an address 

 of this kind, more especially as both sea and fresh-water fisheries 

 constitute an important part of our local industries. The subject 

 indeed comes home to each of us individually, for who is not in- 

 terested in the maintenance of an abundant and cheap supply of 

 so important a food as fish ? 



"We have been used to hear much of the decay of fisheries, — 

 of the constantly decreasing fruitfulness of the fishing grounds 

 both in sea and river, but until recently it has been impossible 

 to form a sound judgment as to the facts upon which these com- 

 plaints were based. Statistics as to the actual amount of fish 

 caught were not forthcoming, or at any rate not in a very trust- 

 worthy form, and so far as the statements and opinions of fisher- 

 men themselves go, there is probably no class of men less given 

 to a scientific consideration of the facts of every day life. More- 

 over it would almost appear that the fisherman's art has some- 

 thing in it which impels to the " drawing of the long bow," and 

 that the statements of the members of the craft must be taken 

 with perhaps more than the ordinary granum salts. 



The complaints as to decline of fisheries are by no means new. 

 In 1883 the House of Commons appointed a Select Committee to 

 enquire into the alleged decline, which, it was said, had con- 

 tinued from the peace of 1815, and was attributed to the en- 

 croachments of the Prench fishermen.^' This kind of complaint, 

 indeed, appeared to have become chronic, and several commis- 

 sions have investigated the matter. There can, I suppose, be no 

 doubt that fishes have become increasingly diflicult to catch by 

 the old-fashioned methods, but whether the difficulty arises from 

 an increasing scarcity of the animals or from the competition of 

 larger numbers of men with better equipped boatSj may be open 

 to dispute. And if fishes have actually become more scarce, it 

 may be asked, has this arisen from over-fishing, from the use of 



* Dr. M'Intosli ; a Brief Sketch of the Scotch Fisheries. 1892. 



