232 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 



experiment till the issue is clear, and it is to be hoped that the 

 experiments at Nigg Bay will be definite. The transference of 

 such valuable fishes as the soles might well be extended with 

 benefit to the Scottish fishermen, and without injury to the 

 English waters \ 



Before leaving this part of the subject, it may be remarked 

 that we lately have heard much of the advantages to science of 

 a costly expedition proposed to be sent to the Antarctic regions. 

 The increase of knowledge, even when not directly bearing on 

 the industries of man, always meets with a sympathetic response 

 from our countrymen. But there are so many unsolved 

 problems confronting us in connection with the fisheries at 

 this moment that one is tempted to ask if those in power 

 would not in the first instance do what has most immediate 

 bearing on the welfare of the many thousands depending on 

 the marine fishes for a livelihood. Why should we not be 

 in a position to say, in this nineteenth century, that a fish, say 

 the haddock, extends in great numbers from either hemisphere 

 into the Atlantic, and, if so, whether the pigmy belt of the 

 three-mile or even the thirteen-mile limit can have any more 

 influence on this form than on the ever-abundant herring ? 



The trawling experiments of the " Garland " have in the fore- 

 going pages been linked on to those carried out for the Royal 

 Commission in 1884, so that continuous observations have been 

 made for fifteen years, and, in certain areas, for a longer period. 

 The aim in all this has been to arrive at reliable results as to 

 the effects of the closure on the captures in the protected areas, 

 on the size of the fishes within the limits, on trawling, and on 

 the welfare of the fisheries generally. 



Some are in doubt concerning the sufiiciency of time 

 (ten or fifteen years) given to the experiments, asserting 

 that 25 or even 50 years would be necessary, but such argu- 

 ments rest on no solid basis and are occasionally used ad 



1 It was intended in 1894 to transfer a much larger number of soles, but an 

 agitation amongst the fishermen of Yorkshire appeared, and the "Garland" 

 was not permitted to remove more examples. The idea that such would injure 

 the fishing off the Yorkshire coast is untenable. Besides, none of those con- 

 nected with the experiment would have suggested any measure calculated to be 

 productive of permanent or even temporary prejudice to the local fishermen. 



