38 BRITISH FISHERIES 



because of any wasteful destruction of spawn, 

 fish food, or immature fish." Professor M'Intosh 

 was, however, more confident of the connection 

 between trawling and depleted fishing grounds. 

 " On the whole," he says,^ " trawling seems to have 

 had a considerable effect on the inshore fishes at 

 Aberdeen as elsewhere " ; and again, " Marine 

 fisheries, hitherto, have been conducted as if 

 practically inexhaustible, both liners and trawlers 

 taking as much from the sea as possible, while no 

 margin has ever been afforded the breeding fishes. 

 Fishermen and fishing boats have increased in 

 number at many places, and trawling has likewise 

 been extending, so that it is not a matter for surprise 

 that some changes in the fishes have occurred." 

 And he comes to this conclusion : " The results 

 of successive hauls of the trawl over the same 

 ground appear to point to a reduction in the 

 number of the round fishes, but especially in the 

 size of the fiat fishes." 



It is evident, then, that the Trawling Commis- 

 sion had come to the conclusion that some kind of 

 restriction on trawling would probably be required 

 in the interests of the sea-fisheries ; and further, 

 that there was urgent need of renewed investigation 

 of the effect of trawling on the stability of a 

 fishing ground. Hitherto the only observations 

 made with this end in view were those conducted 

 by Professor M'Intosh, and these they could not 



^ Report of the Trawling Commission, p. xvi. 



