SELECT COMMIITKE ON THE SEA FISHERIES BILL. 



105 



11 March 1904.] 



Mr. R. H. Grice. 



[Gontimued. 



Duke of Ahercorn — continued. 



1999. Do they go up north, to the North 

 Sea ? — They go north and south too. 



Lord Northboume. 



2000. Have you always been a fisherman on 

 that coast, or have you been anywhere else ? — 



Lord Northboume — continued. 



I have never been below Whitby, fishing. I 

 have been on to the Dogger Bank. 



2001. But you have never fished on the west 

 coast of Ireland ? — No. 



The Witness is directed to withdraw. 



Mr. JAMES BLOOMFIELD is called in ; and Examined as follows : — 



Chair'inan. 



2002. You were lately manager of the Boston 

 Deep Sea Company, owning 36 trawlers, were 

 you not ? — Yes. 



2003. And you are now general manager of a 

 firm owning 38 steam drifters ? — Yes. 



2004. Have you had a recent experience ol a 

 fishing on what we call the eastern grounds, 

 which I think you know as the Borkum Flats ? 

 —Yes. 



2005. Can you give us any particulars of that ? 

 — During the six years that I was manager of 

 the Boston Deep Sea Company, I sent in a 

 number of statistics from time to time to a Mr. 

 Malan, who was then Fisheries Officer with the 

 Board of Trade, and hearing that this evidence 

 was taken, I volunteered the other day to the 

 Fishmongers' Company to come, and just at the 

 last moment I have been able to get hold of 

 copies of two letters that I wrote to Mr. Malan 

 in March. 1902. 



£006. Will you read them, please ?— This is 

 March 13th, 1902, to H. N. Malan, Esq., Board 

 of Trade : " Dear Sir, — Referring to the con- 

 versation I had with you a few days ago 

 respecting fishing statistics, I beg to inform 

 you that one .of our vessels has just landed a 

 voyage of small plaice, about 80 kits of 10 stone 

 each. Complying with your request, we counted 

 the number offish in one kit, which turns out to be 

 490 and in course of conversation with the skipper 

 he estimates he threw as many fish overboard 

 as he saved, because in his opinion they were too 

 small to bring to market. He also tells us that 

 there were about 14 steam trawlers in the 

 neighbourhood, many of them being Dutch 

 boats, which we are given to understand saved 

 the whole of the catch, throwing nothing away. 

 The vessel's position was about five to six miles 

 outside the Borkum Light, with the latter 

 bearing S.S.W." This is a copy of the letter 

 written on the day following : " Referring to my 

 letter of yesterday, we have had another boat 

 in from the neighbourhood of the Borkum, and 



Chairman — continued. 



it has landed a gross catch of about 220 or 230 

 kits, 180 of which were small plaice. When we 

 came to turn out one of these kits we counted no 

 less than 515 fish. This, multiplied by 180, 

 makes the total number of small plaice landed 

 92,700. Like the skipper of the boat that 

 landed yesterday, this skipper is quite of opinion 

 that he threw as many overboard as he kept ; in 

 fact, he thinks considerably more, because, as he 

 puts it, the bulk thrown away was equivalent to 

 the bulk saved, as it naturally follows they were 

 much smaller fish. We should say a fair 

 estimate of the gross amount taken on board in 

 the first place would be about 270,000 to 

 280,000 smaJl plaice. If these were allowed to 

 grow to their full size, 1 estimate, taking them at 

 3 lbs. per fish, they would be equivalent to 

 5,560 kits " (I speak of kits because that was the 

 custom of selling fish there) or " thereabouts as 

 much as the whole of our fleet (36 boats) land in 

 a twelvemonth. I think this is a very striking 

 example of the injury done to the trade through 

 vessels following this particular class of fish. As 

 I explained to you when you were over here, it 

 is not our custom to follow this trade, but 1 am 

 given to understand quite a number of vessels 

 from Grimsby have been working these grounds 

 for some time past, perhaps six or eight weeks. 

 Hoping this information will be of service to 

 you, I am, dear Sir, yours faithfuUy, J. Bloom- 

 field. This particular lot, 180 kits, realised 

 58?- 10,s. If allowed to mature, say to 3 lbs. 

 each, they would be worth on the present aver- 

 age price 13,900L" 



2007. From that I gather that you think that 

 if by any means you could prevent the vessels 

 or- not make it worth the vessels' while to go 

 to these eastern grounds, there would be a large 

 increase of mature fish in the North Sea ? — 

 Yes, I feel sure there would be, from our experi- 

 ence in the trade. 



The Witness is directed to withdraw. 



(0.10.) 



o 



V'ou 



