SUGGESTED REMEDIES 65 



an example of which we have given on a previous 

 page. This must produce one or other of two results : 

 either the small fish will remain longer on the inshore 

 grounds before emigration, or they will emigrate off- 

 shore at a smaller size than at present. Judging, 

 therefore, from the evidence available, it seems 

 probable that legislative restrictions on the lines in- 

 dicated can do little to replenish the offshore fishing- 

 grounds, while such restrictions may lead to a slight, 

 and possibly a substantial, increase in the number of 

 small boats fishing along the coasts affected. 



While Great Britain can grudge no benefit to the 

 fisheries of other countries, it is the improvement of 

 the deep-sea fisheries which is the paramount interest 

 of this country. Doubts, it has been said, are resolved 

 by action ; but if we have correctly analyzed the com- 

 plicated factors which afTect this problem, we have 

 also shown how essential to right action is the fullest 

 possible knowledge concerning all the factors involved. 

 Grave as the North Sea problem undoubtedly is, it is 

 equally certain that the condition of the fishing industry 

 generally was never more prosperous than at the 

 present time. The figures quoted in an earlier part 

 of this article prove this statement to be no paradox. 

 Interference of some kind, whether by legislation, 

 transplantation, artificial culture, or some combination 

 of all these means, seems ultimately to be inevitable. 

 But, if we are to interfere with the fishing industry 

 more successfully than our predecessors, we should 

 take advantage of the present time of prosperity to 

 increase our knowledge on every side — scientific, 

 statistical, experimental — so as to be able to act with 

 conviction when the whole circumstances are clearer 

 and the adequacy of our proposals is less open to 

 doubt. Moreover, in view of the growing interest of 

 other countries, especially Germany and Holland, in 

 deep-sea trawling, and of the international character 



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