LEGISLATION AND THE SEA FISHERIES 169 



interference with the implements of fishing, providing the latter 

 were not unduly destructive. There is no statutory power for the 

 enforcement of a minimum size limit for sea fish, though there is 

 for shellfish. For edible molluscs there may be a minimum size 

 limit for removal from a fishery, but there is no limit of size for sale 

 in the markets or elsewhere. In the case of Crustacea, there is both 

 a legal minimum for removal from a fishery and also for sale in the 

 markets, though these two limits do not necessarily coincide, since 

 the former is enacted by the district fishery committees, and may 

 vary from district to district, or even be non-existent, whereas the 

 latter is statutory and universal. 



Another preventive method is the estabUshment of close seasons. 

 For various reasons this is not practicable in the case of sea fish, 

 but it is for molluscs and crustacea. In the case of molluscs there is 

 a statutory close season for certain kinds of oysters ; there may be 

 a close season in a fishery district for mussels or cockles. In the 

 Lancashire and Western District there is a close season for mussels, 

 but not for cockles or crustacea. 



A third method of prevention is the prohibition of capture, or 

 at any rate, of removal from a fishery of the adult females while 

 engaged in reproduction. This method is adopted only in the 

 case of shellfish like crabs and lobsters, the females of which during 

 the spawning season carry their eggs under the " tail." In this 

 condition the eggs appear like small berries, and the animal is 

 spoken of as a " berried lobster " or " berried crab," as the case may 

 be. It is illegal to remove either of these from a fishery in the 

 Lancashire and Western District. 



The sale of a berried crab is illegal (by statute), but not a berried 

 lobster. 



The fourth method of protection is the entire prohibition of 

 destructive methods of fishing. This method is adopted in the 

 Lancashire and Western District. Steam trawling and destructive 

 methods, such as the use of a " murderer " or " gadger," are not 

 allowed. 



While the Scottish and Irish Central Departments have had a 

 definite policy as to the protection of the fisheries, the Board of 

 Agriculture and Fisheries, on the contrary, seem to have had no 

 initiative of any kind. Both Scotland and Ireland have persistently 

 endeavoured to prohibit steam trawling as far from the coast as is 

 reasonably possible, a policy which the present writer believes wUl 

 ultimately prove to be sound. 



The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in their annual report 

 for 1905 (p. 9, et seq), publish a chart of the fishing grounds, together 

 with a table showing the area between the 3-mile limit and the 



