CHAPTER VIII 



THE INSHORE FISHERIES 



FOR many years the condition of the inshore fisheries and 

 hshermen has been the special concern of the Central 

 Authorities in Scotland and Ireland. 

 In England and Wales the first attempt to legislate for the inshore 



.R««"''Tr^^*^ P^''^S °^ *^^ ^'^ F^^^^™s Regulation Act of 

 i««8. The destruction of immature fish and the decline of the 

 mshore fisheries had been noticed for some years prior to this and 

 m particular evidence may be found in the report of the Buckland- 

 Walpole Commission of 1879. The Local Government Act of 1888 

 had set up local administrative machiaery which was utilised for 

 the regulation of the Sea Fisheries. The Act of 1888 authorised the 

 Board of Trade ^ on the apphcation of a county or borough council, 

 to create a sea fisheries district comprising any part of the sea within 

 which His Majesty's subjects have by international law the ex- 

 clusive right of fishing, together with the adjacent sea coast, and 

 to provide for the constitution of a local fisheries committee for the 

 regulation of the sea fisheries within such district. The powers, 

 duties and responsibilities of these committees are dealt with else- 

 where, and it now remains to estimate the value of their work for 

 the preservation of the inshore fisheries. 



In judging the work of these committees it is only fair to point 

 out that the framers of the Act of 1888 and the Acts amending it 

 (those of 1891 and 1894), were very imperfectly acquainted with 

 the then condition of the sea fisheries, with the causes of deteriora- 

 tion and the necessary remedies. No accurate knowledge of the 

 life histories and habits of local species of fish was available, and 

 the conditions under which the fisheries were carried on were, for 

 the most part, unknown either to the Central Department or the 

 local authorities concerned in fishery administration. 



The consequence was that a whole catalogue of hasty and ill- 

 considered legislation was forced on the inshore fisherman, and it is 

 to be feared that in too many instances, instead of assisting the 



1 These powers have now been transferred to the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries by 3 Edw. 7, 1903. 



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