SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE SEA FISHERIES BILL. 



53 



4 March 1904.] 



Mr. Hamon le Strange. 



Mr. hamon le STRANGE, is called in; and Examined as follows:— 



Chairman. 



973. You are Chairman, are you not, of the 

 Eastern Sea Fisheries Joint Committee ? — 

 Yes. 



974. Whai area do your operations cover ? — 

 We go from Donna Nook, just souih of the 

 Humber, down the rest of the Lincolnshire 

 coast, round the Wash and along the north 

 coast of Norfolk, and at present stop at Happis- 

 burgh Lighthouse. It is about, roughly, 100 

 miles in length, taking it round the Wash. 



975. South of you is there another Fishery 

 Committee? — No, there is an unfortunate gap 

 till you get beyond Lowestoft. 



976. You have seen the Bill ? — Yes. 



977. You observe that it proposes to give 

 power to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries 

 to enact bye-laws in the same manner as powers 

 are given to the Sea Fisheries Committees ? — 

 Just so. 



978. That would enable the Board of Agri- 

 culture and Fisheries to make bye-laws in that 

 area south of you where there is at present no 

 Sea Fisheries Joint Committee, would it not ? — 

 I take it that it would. 



979. Do you think it would be an advantage 

 to fill up these gaps in that way ? — I think it 

 would be of very great advantage to fill up that 

 gap ; that is the only gap left on the English 

 coast, I believe. 



980. You, I presume, represent the interests 

 less of the deep sea trawlers than of the coast 

 fishermen ? — We have both in our distiict ; there 

 is a considerable number of deep-sea trawlers at 

 Boston. 



981. But they go out bej^ond the three-mile 

 limit ? — Yes, as steam trawlers. 



982. But your bye-laws can apply only to the 

 three-mile limit ? — That is so. 



983. Are the interests identical of the inshore 

 tra.wlers and the deep sea trawlers ? — No ; very 

 often they are conflicting; very often the re- 

 strictions asked for by the deep sea trawlers are 

 objected to, perhaps on what might be thought 

 insufficient reasons by the inshore fishermen. , 



984. Then do you think it would be somewhat 

 difficult to have an Act of Parliament which 

 would apply a hard-and-fast rule to both those 

 classes ? — Yes, I think it would. 



985. It would bo a great advantage to have 

 some elasticity which would enable you to 

 exempt from the regulations the deep sea 

 fisheries on the one hand and the inshore 

 fishermen on the other ? — Most certainly. Even 

 in my own district we have four sub-districts 

 with different byelaws applicable in some of 

 them, for those reasons. 



986. Is there much landing of undersized fish 

 in your district ? — Yes, there is a good deal, not 

 all within my district, but there is a great deal 

 of undersized fish caught within the district and 

 landed at Grimsby. Complaints have been 

 made to our Fishery Inspector by the trade and 

 the people at Grimsby, of the number of under- 

 sized fish landed there, which are destructive to 

 the interests of the trade itself. 



Chairman — continued. 



987. Can you give us any particulars of the 

 value of undersized fish landed in that way ? — I 

 cannot give particulars as to the actual fish 

 landed, only general details. Our own inspector, 

 in one of his reports to us in March, 1902, 

 stated that he had on many occasions had his 

 attention drawn to the large quantity of small 

 fish landed by the deep sea trawlers, and he 

 gave the following as a sample of recent market 

 reports : " The greater portion of the extension 

 pontoon (Grimsby) was taken up almost wholly 

 with small plaice, thousands of trunks being laid 

 out for sale. Some twenty trawlers were landing 

 on this section of the market, and fourteen of 

 them had only a very small proportion of other 

 kinds of fish. Small plaice were eveiywhere,. 

 the catches running from 200 up to 500 boxes 

 per vessel. Naturally prices dropped to such 

 an extent that the voyages would scarcely cover 

 expenses, only the best quality and the last hauls 

 making anything like a price." From another- 

 source : " Our Grimsby correspondent reports 

 extraordinary landings of immature plaice, 

 small fish that must have saddened the hearts 

 of those concerned for the welfare of the 

 fisheries. This week, indeed, several of 

 the markets — Billingsgg te, Grimsby, Lowes- 

 toft, Birmingham, &c., have been flooded 

 with small plaice, which was practically worth- 

 less, even to fryers. At Billingsgate the 

 miserable stuff could not be cleared at 9d. a 

 stone. Then the manager of a fleet of steam 

 trawlers at Boston supplied our inspector with, 

 particulars of a catch obtained from the neighbour- 

 hood of the Borkum — coast of Germany. 



988. That is what we know on this Com- 

 mittee as the eastern grounds ? — Yes. " The 

 catch consisted of 225 kits (281 cwts.) of fish " 

 (each of 2,814 fish), " 180 kits (225 cwts.) of 

 which were small plaice. In one kit 515 fish- 

 were counted, this multiplied by 180 makes the 

 total small plaice landed from the vessel 92,700. 

 The skipper of the trawler was of opinion that 

 he threw considerably more fish overboard than 

 he kept, and he agreed that a fair estimate of 

 what he took on board in the first instance 

 would be about 270,000 to 280,000. At an 

 average weight of three pounds each fish, this 

 number would be equivalent to 5,560 kits 

 (6,950 cwts.). The 180 kits of small plaice landed 

 realised 581. If they had been mature plaice 

 they would be worth on the present average 

 price 14,000Z. The above particulars are only 

 those of a single trip of one trawler," 



Lord Jforthbourne. 



989. What are you quoting from? — I am 

 quoting from a report made to my Fishery Com- 

 mittee in the semi-annual report made by our 

 own inspector every half-year. I can put in the 

 report itself It is two years old now. 



Chairman. 



990. It has been suggested to the Committee 

 that it might be possible to deal with this ques- 

 tion 



