INTRODUCTION xv 



must not be forgotten that the other problem of securing a 

 means of livelihood to a large class of men is also of no less 

 importance. 



A man earning £5000 a year may not be ten times as useful to 

 the State as one earning £500 a year, and a group of fishermen 

 whose aggregate earnings are from a financial standpoint con- 

 temptible and whose landings of fish would only sufiice for a 

 very small community are not necessarily of no account to the 

 nation. 



If this volume has any special cause to plead it is that of the 

 inshore fisherman. It ought to be — it is — possible to secure for him 

 reasonable conditions of existence without in any way curtailing 

 the field of operations or the dividends of the big steam fishing 

 companies. To the latter bodies the very greatest credit is due for 

 opening up sources of food supply to the country which otherwise 

 would be unavailable. Carried on at a reasonable distance from 

 the coast there can be no possible objection to the operations of 

 large vessels fishing on an extensive scale. Although such methods 

 of fishing have not resulted, as is so frequently claimed, in 

 cheapening the supply of fish (see Appendix, p. 274), they have 

 secured a steady and constant supply to our big industrial 

 centres, which would otherwise only rarely see marine fish in their 

 markets. 



The questions of the preservation and improvement of the sea 

 fisheries ought properly to be considered after the book has been 

 perused. But it is convenient to summarise certain arguments here. 

 It cannot be said, in spite of the numerous committees and com- 

 missions which have been appointed of recent years, that there 

 has been much progress in fishery administration. The three 

 central departments for fisheries, i.e. England and Wales, Scotland 

 and Ireland vary much in efficiency ; and one proposed remedy for 

 the present admitted defects is the absorption of the three depart- 

 ments into one. This " remedy " has found much favour in English 

 administrative circles, but it is understood to be less favourably 

 regarded in Scotland and Ireland. The Committee on Ichthyological 

 Research (1902) recommended the appointment of a conference, 

 consisting of representatives of the three Central Authorities " to 

 secure uniformity of action between scientific bodies at work in 

 the seas surrounding the United Kingdom, and to prevent over- 

 lapping of areas of research." The question of general administra- 

 tion as distinguished from scientific investigation was not before 

 this committee. Similarly the Committee on Fishery Investigations 

 (1908) advocated a Central Council for the United Kingdom to 

 control public funds for fishery investigations of a national and 



