THE DEVELOPMENT OF STEAM TRAWLING 155 



senting the Marine Biological Association was of opinion that if 

 the size limit given in the Bill were adopted, the Bill would be of no 

 practical use, and that it would only be effective if the size limit 

 were increased to 13 in. for plaice, the Committee felt that it would 

 not be expedient to pass the Bill into law without further inquiry 

 and investigation. In spite of this rebuff the trawlers did not relax 

 their efforts, and in 1904 another Bill was introduced, this time in 

 the House of Lords. It differed from the preceding one in that it 

 was an enabling Bill ; that is, it proposed to confer on the Central 

 Authority for fisheries power to make orders to prohibit the landing 

 of fish of kinds and sizes to be specified, in such localities as might 

 be found necessary. A select Committee of the House of Lords 

 sat diiring February and March, 1904, when evidence was again 

 taken both from witnesses representing the trade and from scientific 

 experts. The various departments in England, Scotland and 

 Ireland concerned with the administration of the fisheries were 

 also represented. The evidence given by the trawlers was much 

 the same as before, but the scientific witnesses, or at any rate 

 some of them, had by this time considerably modified their views. 

 The witness on whose evidence the Bill of 1900 was thrown out, 

 now maintained that there are two races of plaice in the North Sea. 

 " The northern area where steam trawlers fish is inhabited by a 

 larger race of plaice, maturing at a different size from those in the 

 southern area, which, I believe, is inhabited by a smaller race of 

 plaice. It so happens that the two races correspond with the areas 

 occupied by the smacks and steam trawlers respectively." 

 This is, indeed, a most remarkable coincidence ! 

 From this theory the witness proceeded to support two size 

 limits, one for the ports frequented by the steam trawlers, and 

 another for those frequented by the smacks. As to the impoverish- 

 ment of the fishing grounds, the position taken up in 1900 is 

 definitely abandoned, and nothing further is said about the 13 in. 

 size limit for plaice. The evidence now given is, " Some few years 

 ago I tried to put together the statistical evidence on this point, 

 and I submitted it to the Committee of 1900. In that paper I 

 showed for a large number of different fisheries that the complaint 

 of the fishermen was correct, that the average catches per boat 

 had been declining for a continuous series of years. But it has been 

 pointed out by certain critics that to conclude from that evidence 

 that the abundance of fish in the sea is less now than was formerly 

 the case is a logical fallacy. I have accepted the criticism that it 

 is impossible, merely from the evidence of the decline in the average 

 catch of the fishermen with an increasing number of boats, to 

 conclude that there has been an impoverishment of the grounds. 



