SEEECT' COMMITTEE- ON THE 'SEA M«HBRIES ' BILL. 



lajfarcfe 1004.] 



■Mr. E. W; L. H>>Lt. 



:(:C4'fi'tW'U4<^ 



Lord Tweedmouth — continued. 



. 1151. But they are comparatively small ? — 

 Yes. [Witness here handed in a map showing 

 the areas affected by by-laws relating to trawling. 



1152. But the point I wanted to arrive at was 

 this. I understood from Mr. Green that the 

 object of the prohibition of steam trawling in 

 ■certain pla'ce's was on account of the herring fish- 

 ing ? — Yes, that is certainly the case in some bays. 



1153. Sheepshaven was one? — Yes, and in 

 Killara Bay steam trawling is prohibited during 

 the period when there' are shoals of herrings in 

 the bay. 



1154. And is it your opinion, or have you 

 formed any opinion, whether that has been 

 successful ; I mean has it beeii so successful that 

 more herrings have come since the steam trawl- 

 ing has been prohibited ? — It is very hard to 

 form any opinion on the herring, because it 

 <jomes ill such an uncertain manner ; but I 

 think, reading over the old reports, that there 

 was very good evidence that if herring were in 

 there and a steam trawler came in the herring 

 went out, or, at any rate, could not be caught 

 -with equal facility. The possibility of a steam 

 trawler entering narrow waters would also deter 

 men trom shooting herring nets there. The 

 lierring fishing in Sheephaven has been good of 

 late years. 



1155. But generally would you say that the 

 £sheries of Ireland are as good as ever they 

 were ? — No, I should not like to make that 

 statement. 



1156. Will you tell us what fisheries have 

 fallen back? — The fishing by sailing trawlers 

 .seems to have deteriorated a great deal. The 

 ■deterioration has been attributed, rightly or 

 wrongly, to the action of steam trawlers, with 

 which the authorities were not able to take any 

 •efficient action until a Bill was passed two years 

 .ago, and until they became provided with a 

 •cruiser for fishery protection purposes. Since 

 then the steam trawlers have Kept pretty well 

 away from the places where they are prohibited. 



1157. But do you think that the limitations 

 which have been put on steam trawlers have 

 had the effect of improving the fishings of other 

 vessels when that limitation has taken place ? — 

 Their effective limitation is a matter of , such 

 recent date that one could hardly anticipate any 

 nnaterial improvement. 



1158. In what classes of fish do you think 

 there has been deterioration in the Irish fish- 

 cries ? — Haddock have certainly been a diminish- 

 ing item, but they appear to be increasing again ; 

 and I should not be disposed to say that their 

 deterioration was due to steam trawling, because 

 it has occurred in other places. 



1159. But the Dublin haddock is rather an 

 ■old story ? — It is chiefiy an old stqry now. 



1160." But in flat fish do you think there has 

 been any diminution ? — One hears it constantly 

 alleged, but in the absence of absolute evidence 

 and of any exact statistical information in former 

 years it is Very difficult to judge. I think on the 

 whole there has been a deterioration in flat fish in 

 some of the bays of the coasts — notably, 1 think, 

 along the Waterford coast. 



1161. That would be the ground, rather, that 

 some of the Brixliam men' would come to ? — 

 The Brixham men know the ground, certainly ; 



(0.10.) 



Lord Tweedmouth— continned- 

 I have fished there with a Brixham mate, but I 

 do not think they come there much now. 



1162. But supposing thi^s Bill were to be 

 passed by Parliament, would the Irish authori- 

 ties take advantage of it for Irish purposes ?^ 

 I think I must really refer you to Mr. Green on 

 a matter of that sort. 



Lord Heneage. 



1163. Generally speaking, you think, it would 

 be a great advantage to give every possible power 

 under the Bill to the Board rather than to have 

 hard-a.nd-fast rules fixed by Act, as I understand 

 by your evidence ? — Yes. 



1164. And you think that it would be a great 

 advantage to the trade generally rather than to 

 have an Act like the Bill of 1900, in which the 

 limit was laid down by legislation ? — Yes, I am 

 certain that it would be much preferable to have 

 a limit which may be altered from time to time 

 as circumstances dictate. 



1165. And you believe that is the view of the 

 Irish Board which you represent ? — So far as I 

 am aware of it. 



Lord Nortliboume. 



1166. I should like to ask you, as a scientific 

 Avitness, what are the number of eggs in the 

 spawn of a sole? — I cannot tell you from 

 memory ; I think it is about five or six million 

 so far as I remember. It is a large number. 



1167. From a pair of these fish, how many 

 other fish may one presume, from a single 

 spawning, will come into existence ? — It is a 

 calculation I have never made. 



1168. Has it been made? — Yes, it has been 

 frequently made, always with different results, so 

 far as I am aware. 



1169. Because I understood a professor here 

 last week to say that from a pair of soles you 

 would not get more than two others. I could 

 not understand it; I could not follow it. I 

 thought they reproduced in many thousands ? — 

 The probability, I should say, why they have 

 arrived at reproducing in such enormous num- 

 bers is that otherwise they could not exist; thfit 

 the mortality is so great from one cause or 

 another that an enormous number of ova is 

 essential to the upkeep *of the species. 



1170. What are the causes of mortality 

 amongst the ova ? — To some extent the failure 

 of fertilisation is a cause, I think, though not, so 

 far as I know, a large one in the open sea. Then 

 the eggs are tiny things, naturally helpless, and 

 they are greedily eaten by many of the small 

 predaceous creatures that are to be found in 

 quantities in the sea. The young ones vv^hen 

 they are hatched are blind, and hardly capable 

 of swimming; absolutely helpless, and again 

 they are likely to be eaten ; for successful growth 

 it seems that they must reach the sandy shallows 

 at a certain stage, and their arrival there must 

 depend largely on wind and tide ; and practically 

 until a sole is about 8 or 8 inches long he is eaten 

 by anything that can catch him. 



1171. It is well known that certain classes of 

 fish will eat each other ; does that apply to the 

 sole ? — The very youngest sole I know anything 

 about eats tiny sprats when he can get them. 

 He is certainly a carnivorous beast ; but I do not 



think 



