226 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 



the fisheries. The same feature is indicated by M. Georges 

 Koche in regard to the net fishermen of the shores of France, 

 those with drift-nets accusing those with fixed nets as the 

 source of the diminution of the fishes. This author^ puts other 

 aspects of the case thus : " Si Ton consulte les archives de 

 I'administration de la marine, on voit que de tout temps des 

 plaintes se sont fait entendre a ce sujet. Aux siecles passes, 

 deja, on pretendait que la mer du Nord etait d^peuplee, et 

 I'on accusait certains precedes de travail d'etre les causes de ce 

 depeuplement. Les petitions adressees au roi, il y a deux 

 siecles, par des pecheurs de la Mediterranee etaient congues 

 dans les termes presque identiques a ceux des petitions ac- 

 tuelles. Tons les reglements qui ont ete elabores pour parer au 

 ■depeuplement des mers depuis 1850 sont precedes de con- 

 siderants tels, que Ton semblait croire, aux epoques ou ces 

 reglements ont ete faits, a une sterilisation presque complete 

 du milieu marin." 



The fear which seems to dominate a section of the public is 

 that the sea-fisheries of our offshore and inshore w^aters may be 

 ruined by over-fishing, as in fresh waters both fluviatile and 

 lacustrine. They do not deem it in consonance with common 

 sense that large ships fitted with the most effective apparatus, 

 and increasing by hundreds annually, should energetically, and 

 in addition to the liners, search those waters without seriously 

 affecting the supply. But they do not keep clearly in view the 

 fact that as soon as an area yields less than what is remunera- 

 tive either to liner or trawler he changes his ground, and the 

 fishes in addition are scattered. The impoverishment of an 

 area is thus more or less self- curative. It is not within man's 

 power to reduce any area of the sea to utter barrenness, since 

 the constant interchange betw^een it and the vast field of waters 

 is constantly going on. Accordingly, as soon as a certain reduc- 

 tion is made, immigrants by-and-by restore the losses either 

 gradually or by great seasonal shoals. Besides, in connection 

 with trawling, only certain areas are chosen, since sharp rocks 

 or very rough ground are unsuitable. Yet in these sanctuaries 

 the liners can work. The trawl, moreover, captures fishes on or 



1 La Culture des Mers, 1898, p. 68. 



