i68 THE SEA FISHERIES 



the Fisheries Department of the University of Liverpool, or at the 

 Marine Laboratory and Sea Fish Hatchery at Barrow-in-Fumess. 

 A report is published annually summarising the investigations 

 carried out in the Irish Sea. The administrative staff consists 

 of a superintendent and a number of fishery officers, who are 

 stationed partly on shore or on sea-going vessels. At present 

 the Committee possesses a steamer, motor boat and several sailing 

 cutters. 



In 1913 there were eleven local fishery committees in England 

 and Wales. The total income of these bodies from all sources 

 amounted to £18,747, of which the Lancashire and Western claimed 

 £10,536. Three committees had a total income of less than £300 

 a year. In three other cases the total income was less than 

 £500. In two cases the cost of prosecutions and law expenses 

 generally was nil ; in six other cases it was under £20. Under 

 the heading of Purchase, maintenance or hire of vessels or boats 

 we find that two Committees spent nothing, three others £20 

 or less. 



On a large committee the influence of a small but clamant section 

 of inshore fishermen, desirous of legislation not really in the mterest 

 of the fisheries as a whole, but rather in the interest of a section, 

 would be practically nil, whereas in a small committee it might 

 be overwhelming. 



The district committees have the power to frame by-laws, which, 

 as above stated, only become operative when the sanction of the 

 Central Board is obtained, for a sea fisheries district, comprising 

 any part of the sea within which His Majesty's subjects have by 

 international law the exclusive right of fishing, and since so far as 

 " international law " defines an exclusive fishery area, it is one 

 within the 3-mile limit, it follows that the powers of the district 

 committees in England and Wales are less extensive than those 

 of the Central Boards of Ireland and Scotland. The principles 

 which guide, or ought to guide, a fishery committee in framing 

 by-laws may best be considered by taking those in force in the 

 largest area controlled by such a committee— the Lancashire and 

 Western. The object of the by-laws is to prevent the destruction 

 of undersized and immature fish, and by preserving a sufiicient 

 number of adults of each species to secure a continuity of the supply. 

 The biological ideal would be to allow every individual fish the 

 opportunity of spawning once, but this is impracticable. Obviously 

 the best means theoretically would be to prevent the capture of 

 fish below a certain size. This method would be preferable to any 

 other since, firstly, there would be no object in catching fish below 

 the legal minimum, and, secondly, there would be little or no 



