Vlll 



are decreasing. The decrease has, in fact, been so marked that 

 it has actually, in some cases, led to diminished fishing. It 

 was suggested to us that the decrease was attributable to the 

 very considerable operations which are in progress for improving 

 the navigation of the Tyne. The Tyne Navigation Commis- 

 sioners have dredged annually some 500,000 tons of clay and 

 other stuff from the bed of the river, have placed it in barges 

 called "hoppers," and carried it out to sea. The alkali manufac- 

 turers have, concurrently, disposed of their refuse in the same 

 way. The fishermen allege that this refuse has in some cases 

 settled on the rocky ground near the mouth of the river ; that it 

 has had the effect of covering up the holes in which the crabs 

 and lobsters live ; that the character of the sea bottom has been 

 gradually altered ; and that it has been made less and less suit- 

 able for crabs and lobsters ; and that the crabs especially have 

 fallen off in consequence. We are far from saying that no atten- 

 tion should be paid to this allegation ; we think it probable that 

 these operations may have had a very pernicious effect on the crab 

 •and lobster fisheries at the mouth of the Tyne; but we cannot 

 believe that they form the only or even the chief cause of the 

 decrease of these fisheries. The failure which we found at 

 Cullercoats is almost as marked at North Sunderland, and the 

 fisheries off North Sunderland are not injured by any operations 

 such as those which have been conducted at the mouth of the 

 Tyne for the last 20 years. It is a fair inference that the cause 

 which is affecting crabs and lobsters at North Sunderland is 

 also affecting the fisheries at Cullercoats, and that we therefore 

 ought to search for a cause common to both places, and not for 

 a reason singular to only one of them. 



We are disposed, then, to conclude that Cullercoats, like North 

 Sunderland, is suffering from over-fishing, and this conclusion is 

 assisted by reviewing the state of things which exists at an 

 intermediate village, Hawxley. We are assured that there is no 

 decrease either of crabs or of lobsters at Hawxley. " There are as 

 " many crabs and lobsters as there were 15 years ago," said the first 

 of the three Hawxley witnesses whom we had before us. " The 

 " lobsters are just as thick as they were the first day he went to 

 '•' sea," said the second of them. " There is no decrease at Hawxley," 

 said the third. But the Hawxley men have been in the habit of 

 keeping a close season from June to October, and of returning all 

 undersized crabs and lobsters. The success which has attended 

 these self-imposed rules at Hawxley points to their extension to 

 other places ; and, as a matter of fact, the fishermen throughout 

 Northumberland are in favour of some such rules as these. " The 

 ■- universal opinion at Craster," said one fisherman to us, "is that 

 " the close season should commence on the 1st June and end on 

 " the 30th November." The Craster, North Sunderland, and Beed- 

 nell fishermen are unanimous in thinking that no crab under 

 4J inches across the back, and no lobster under 4 inches in the 

 barrel, should be taken. Much the same recommendations were 

 made to us at Cullercoats. No crab, it was suggested, should be 



