86 CAPTURES BY LINERS AND TRAWLERS, 1895. 



doom of the haddock all along the eastern shores of Scofcland. 

 Yet the greater part of this increase in haddocks, or 92,954 cwts., 

 came from the east coast, and by no transference of the increment 

 to the Great Fisher Bank, the Faroe Islands, or similar distant 

 areas, can this be under-estimated. It is sufficient to point to 

 the captures of the " Garland " within the limits to show that 

 the haddock, if persistently followed, was likewise plentiful 

 inshore. The substantial increase was not only in numbers, 

 but the value rose by £34,756 on the total catch on the Scotch 

 shores in 1895. Such facts strengthen the belief that the 

 Scotch haddock fishery is not so reduced as is stated. It is 

 true that every season, indeed every week, shows its variations 

 — from weather, roving of the shoals of fishes and other causes, 

 e.g. the use of unsavoury bait, yet after trawler and liner have 

 each taken as many as possible the remaining stock is such as 

 to give no cause for alarm — even to those sensitively alive to 

 the welfare of the marine fisheries. The large number of boats 

 and the use of trawls possibly disturb and break up the shoals 

 for a time, as well as cause them to change their ground, but 

 the ocean is a vast place of refuge — in which the depleted 

 ranks will be augmented, their places taken by others, or by 

 themselves at a later stage. It cannot be supposed that all the 

 manifold apparatus persistently used by liners and by trawlers 

 makes no impression on the hordes of haddocks. The author 

 has always thought that the larger forms were diminished in 

 numbers, and this is borne out by the appearance of the 

 captures, say off Shetland on the one hand, and off St Andrews 

 Bay and the Forth on the other — except under special circum- 

 stances as, for instance, the presence of shoals of herrings at 

 their spawning season in winter. But to aver that, because 

 the harassed and more wary fishes are caught in small numbers, 

 they are on the road to extinction, is to shut out the facts that 

 the water teems with the eggs in season, with swarms of minute 

 young food-fishes, and with myriads of other young fishes which 

 along with pelagic marine organisms of a lower type form their 

 food. Eggs of haddocks in the water are as good hostages for 

 the filling up of the ranks as need be wished ; while the myriads 

 of young in the deeper water, free from molestation by any 



