markets. 



XV111 



lobsters, a berried crab is almost valueless. While it would 

 be impolitic to enact that no berried lobster should be sold, 

 there would be no difficulty in enacting that berried crabs should 

 Soft crabs. not be sold. It is also most advisable that the sale of" soft" crabs 

 should be prohibited. These fish are watery, have little or no 

 meat in them, and are almost valueless as food. They ought 

 to be returned to the sea to be permitted to recover and grow 

 into marketable crabs. 

 Enforcement. It will be observed, in the foregoing recommendations, that 

 of law^in we have uniformly proposed to prohibit the sale, not the capture, 



of certain kinds of crabs and lobsters. We have done so for two 

 reasons. In the first place "soft" crabs and undersized crabs 

 are occasionally used by fishermen as bait for fish, and v/e are 

 satisfied that the last thing which legislation should do is to inter- 

 fere with the bait which fishermen may deem it requisite to employ. 

 Bait is of more importance to the fisherman than anything else. 

 A fisherman told us at Penzance that he would cut up a turbot 

 worth a sovereign rather than be without bait ; and it is much 

 better that crabs should be broken up for bait than that hundreds 

 of men should be without employment for want of bait. When 

 bait is scarce it is absolutely necessary to break up the small 

 crabs as bait for wrasse, the wrasse being used, in their turn, as 

 bait for crabs and lobsters. 



We believe, moreover, that the only practical way of carrying 

 out any law is to enforce it in the markets. It would require an 

 army of bailiffs to enforce it on the coast. But the sale of small 

 crabs, soft crabs, and berried crabs can easily be prevented, 

 because it is the interest of the trade not to sell them. The 

 small crabs do not pay the tradesman ; the soft crabs and berried 

 crabs injure his business by giving it a bad name. We conceive, 

 therefore, that there is no very serious difficulty in carrying out 

 the law in the markets, though there is no possibility of enforcing 

 it on the coasts. So far as London is concerned, the Second 

 Warden of the Fishmongers' Company expressed to us the 

 willingness of the Company to direct their officers to enforce the 

 gauge in the Billingsgate Market.* We recommend, therefore, that 

 these officers should receive express authority from Parliament 

 for the purpose. We have very little doubt that the civic 

 authorities in the other large markets will assist in the same 

 way. The law, therefore, should, for the above reasons, be a 

 law of sale and not a law of capture. 



In expressing this conclusion, we have not overlooked the very 

 important evidence which we received towards the close of our 

 inquiry at Birmingham. Birmingham is the great fish market 

 of central England. Fish of all kinds are sent to Birmingham 

 from every part of the United Kingdom, and are distributed 

 -from Birmingham, not merely in the Black Country and its 

 immediate neighbourhood, but in Hereford, Aberystwith, and 



* Appendix to Keport, Evidence, page 30. 



