THE TRAWLING COMMISSION 37 



Bay, the Firth of Forth, and the fishing grounds 

 off Scarborough. 



Though the Commissioners seem to have been 

 satisfied that the inshore fishing grounds had 

 undergone some deterioration, they were not so 

 certain as to the exact cause. There was no doubt, 

 from the evidence laid before them and from the 

 observations made by Professor M'Intosh, that 

 trawling had not produced this effect by damaging 

 the food or spawn of fishes ; and they were 

 convinced that the destruction of immature fish 

 had no injurious effect on the fish-supply. There 

 remained, therefore, the hypothesis that trawling 

 might exhaust or impoverish a fishing ground 

 simply because of its great effectiveness as a 

 method of fishing : that a ground might become 

 " over-fished," and consequently less profitable. It 

 is notable that they were reluctant to come to this 

 conclusion, and they suggested that other causes 

 might, at least, co-operate in producing this effect. 

 Bad seasons of fishing might result from natural 

 fluctuations in the abundance of fish ; the evidence 

 itself was not sufficiently exact ; too much reliance 

 could not be placed on the impressions and re- 

 collections of fishermen. They could not conclude, 

 therefore, that trawling was the sole cause of the 

 impoverishment. " In so far as it may contribute 

 to that decrease," they say,^ " we think it can only 

 be as part of a system of over-fishing, and not 



1 Report of the Trawling Commission, p. xxxvi. 



