PRESENT CONDITION OF FISHING GROUNDS. 101 



ingly worked ; and it cannot be doubted that they contained, at 

 any rate in 1894, an immense number of small haddocks \ 

 Moreover, these small haddocks had migrated from the distant 

 waters, for it is a remarkable fact that, so far as ascertained, no 

 great shoals of very small haddocks (i.e., less than 3 inches) 

 have been encountered in inshore waters. The life-history of 

 the haddock, indeed, shows that between its post-larval condition 

 and the adolescent stage of between 2 and 3 inches, it is a 

 deep-water fish. Before the appearance of these hordes of small 

 haddocks, it was generally asserted that the haddock had been 

 more or less extirpated ; hence the necessity for caution in 

 dealing with such subjects. Again, the question as to the 

 completeness of the statistics of fishes caught round the 

 Scottish shores has to be considered, and there are some who 

 think much improvement is required in this direction. Indeed, 

 the only satisfactory method would be for every liner, trawler, 

 net-, crab-, or other fisherman to hand to the official on reaching 

 the port a slip stating the amount and kind of the ' catch,' and 

 the ground on which it was made, as indicated in the Trawling 

 Report of 1884. 



The condition of the inshore waters (within the 3-mile 

 limit) has elsewhere been dealt with 2, and will again form the 

 subject of future remarks. All that need be said at present is 

 that, so far as can be ascertained, it would not appear that the 

 closure of the inshore waters has made any marked increase in 

 the fishes of the offshore waters, yet the younger fishes have 

 now had time to pass outward and become mature ; nor have 

 the larger fishes been driven shorewards by the more frequent 

 interference with the more distant areas. No change, however, 

 could be expected if the scarcity were due to general over- 

 fishing. 



A consideration of all the foregoing facts gives no grounds 

 for despairing of the sea-fisheries — but sifted in every way 

 show that the condition is not unsatisfactory in regard to the 



1 An idea of the numbers of these may be given by stating that a trawler 

 brought on board, in two hauls, about ten tons of small haddocks, which were, 

 however, freed. Many were probably killed. 



'^ A Brief Sketch of the Scottish Fisheries, 1882 — 1892, p. 6. 



