xxviii THE SEA FISHERIES 



colleges and classes in fishing localities. Up to the present the 

 teaching of navigation in this country has been in the hands of 

 retired seafaring men, and while one does not wish to decry their 

 knowledge of their subject, it is obvious to anyone acquainted with 

 educational matters that they would not be as capable as trained 

 teachers of giving instruction in navigation and allied fishery 

 subjects to the class of pupil who will be called into existence when 

 the Education Act becomes operative. 



Towards the end of 1918 the steam-trawler-owners association 

 (the National Sea Fisheries Protection Association) prepared 

 a statement in which they advocate the formation of a separate 

 Ministry of Fisheries with a separate Minister, presumably of 

 Cabinet rank. This statement, though in the nature of a summary, 

 is far too lengthy to reproduce here. At the same time, since it 

 represents an important section of the fishing trade, indeed its 

 advocates claim to be the trade, it merits careful consideration. 

 The memorandum would perhaps have gained in value had it been 

 more judicial and less polemical, but that is by the way. It is 

 difficult to abstract what is really an epitome, and we have no 

 desire but to present a fair r&um6 of the main features of the 

 memorandum.^ 



The steam trawlers claim that 82.7 per cent of the total catch of 

 fish landed in the British Isles in 1913 was made by steam vessels, 

 and that at least 94 per cent of the fish was caught outside terri- 

 torial waters. " Allowing for considerable underestimation of 

 the inshore fisheries, they remain from a purely economic point of 

 view — as a source of food supply — comparatively insignificant." 



The National Sea Fisheries Protection Association believe that 

 after the war there wiU be a great increase of fishing. Large fishing 

 grounds have been closed to fishing by Admiralty orders for a 

 long period, and consequently it is reasonable to expect an accumu- 

 lation of stock on these fishing grounds. The Association, however, 

 say that lean years may return, and no one who reads carefully 

 the fourth chapter of this book will deny this possibihty. And it 

 is against the prospect of these lean years that they wish to safe- 

 guard themselves. 



The Association say that the English and Scottish steam and 

 motor vessels were worth twelve million sterling in 1913. Various 

 members of the Association assess the capital invested in the 

 British fisheries from fifty to two hundred million pounds. This 

 includes engineering shops, building slips, fishing docks and wharves, 

 fish shops, fish markets, vessels, gear, canning factories, ice factories, 



1 " Proposed Ministry for the Fisheries." Memorandum prepared by the 

 N.S.F.P.A., Fishmongers Hall, London, 1918 (November). 



