36 BRITISH FISHERIES 



this latter charge a remarkable change of opinion 

 is now, for the first time, apparent. Whatever 

 effect the great development of trawling, and 

 especially of steam trawling, had, would be most 

 likely to show itself first on the inshore fishing 

 grounds, and, as a matter of fact, they received 

 several complaints of a falling off in the number of 

 fishes frequenting those grounds, and they came to 

 the conclusion that these complaints had a basis of 

 fact. " We are of opinion," they said,^ " that on 

 many fishing grounds" (on the inshore waters), 

 "from the Moray Firth to Grimsby, there has 

 been a falling off in the takes of flat fish, both as 

 regards quantity and quality. There has also been 

 a decrease in the takes of haddock in certain 

 places, chiefly in bays and estuaries." With the 

 exception of soles, no decrease in the takes of sea- 

 fish has been demonstrated to have taken place on 

 the offshore fishing grounds of the North Sea. 

 The position thus taken up, in asserting the im- 

 poverishment of the fishing grounds, was a new 

 one for a modern commission of inquiry, but it 

 was supported by much evidence. The obser- 

 vations undertaken by Professor M'Intosh led to 

 the same conclusions, and that investigator was of 

 opinion that there had been a diminution in the 

 number of round fishes and in the size of flat 

 fishes in the areas specially observed by him, viz. 

 the inshore waters of Aberdeen Bay, St Andrews 



1 Report of the Trawling Commission, p. xxvii. 



