SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 227 



within a few feet of the ground ^ though the newer kinds may 

 be used in midwater. 



It is true that by the closure the lines of the fisherman are 

 thus protected from disturbance and injury by the trawls, and 

 he is left the sole master of the situation, to put in and take 

 out when he chooses. He can spread fleets of lines entirely 

 over bays, and leave them unattended. On the same principles 

 areas may be closed against steam-communication, and traffic 

 relegated to the sailing-boat. In the one case it may happen 

 that lines left all night may not be visited for several days 

 during a storm, whilst hundreds of fishes hang on the hooks all 

 this time or perish from wounds or under attacks of cuttle- 

 fishes, whelks, star-fishes, dog-fishes and other forms. The 

 public, besides, do not obtain so large a supply, especially in 

 rough weather. In the other case, a monopoly of the traffic is 

 inaugurated, with its exorbitant charges and imperfect service. 



The complication caused by the anti-trawling agitation 

 has been and is considerable, but is less due to those immedi- 

 ately interested than to interference from the outside and to 

 political circumstances, the former especially being marked 

 wherever limited information exists. It is seldom difficult to 

 rouse class-prejudices especially on a subject so difficult to 

 master as the fisheries, and the network of associations along 

 the seaboard of the country, and generally in communication 

 with each other, is not unfavourable for the rapid extension of 

 such movements. 



The protection of the area within the three-mile limit has 

 entailed great responsibility on the Government without in the 

 least altering any of nature's arrangements or adding to the 

 stock of fishes within the areas. Just as in the case of the 

 destruction-of-the-spawn- theory, the demonstration of its fallacy 

 was followed by the destruction-of-the-food-theory, and the 

 destruction-of-the-immature-fish-agitation, by the injury to the 

 fishes themselves and by the devastation of the sea generally ; 

 so the closure of certain definite areas for scientific experi- 

 mental purposes was soon followed by demands for larger areas 

 being closed, then for the whole three-mile limit round the 

 ^ See Otter-trawl on front book-cover. 



15—2 



