i66 THE SEA FISHERIES 



This redistribution of nationalities has probably been of some 

 real benefit, because while the pseudo-Scandinavians worked in 

 the Firth all the year round, the German, Dutch and Belgian trawlers 

 confine their operations to a limited period in the spring when cod 

 are abundant in the Firth ; and since the cod is a fish whose 

 abundance does not appear to be much affected by trawling, the 

 diminished fishing operations in the Firth during the rest of the 

 year cannot be otherwise than beneficial. The only other Scottish 

 area which was fished to any extent by foreign trawlers was the 

 Firth of Clyde, and such trawling has practically ceased there since 

 the passing of the Act of 1909. 



Here, then, we have a definite policy pursued over a long period 

 of years by a body constituted by statute for the protection and 

 development of the fisheries of Scotland. The keynote of this 

 policy is the insufficiency of the ordinary 3-mile limit with a lo-mile 

 line across the bays for the protection of the sea fisheries. This 

 policy was endorsed by the trawlers themselves in the 1893-1903 

 period, when they were greatly concerned about the future of the 

 North Sea ; and it is only the discovery and the exploitation of 

 distant fishing grounds which, by relieving the pressure on the 

 North Sea itself, has induced them to drop their agitation. 



In Ireland the administration of the Acts relating to the sea 

 fisheries is also entrusted to a central authority— the Department 

 of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland. This body 

 has adopted a policy similar to that of the Scottish Fishery Board— 

 a policy which has for its first axiom the inadequacy of the 3-mile 

 limit. Under the by-laws made by the Irish Department, steam 

 trawling is prohibited for the most part, if not entirely, within the 

 3-mile limit off the Irish coast and in many wide extra-territorial 

 areas. It ought not to pass unmentioned that in Scotland and 

 even more in Ireland the steam trawling element does not form 

 such an appreciable portion of the fishing industry as it does m 



England. , . . ^, -r, a t 



For England and Wales the central authority is the Board of 

 Agriculture and Fisheries, whose powers, however, are much more 

 limited than those of either the Scottish or the Irish Boards. The 

 Board itself is concerned with the collection of fishery statistics, 

 and (in recent years) the conduct of England's share of the inter- 

 national investigations into the fisheries of the North and neigh- 

 bouring Seas. The administration of the coastal fisheries is in the 

 hands of various district committees, who enforce by-laws after 

 they have been approved by the Central Board. There are about a 

 dozen of these district committees, and they vary widely "i thei^ 

 efficiency. On the one hand there may be a large committee with 



