62 BRITISH FISHERIES 



followed was unique among its kind : hitherto one 

 class of fishermen had called for interference with 

 the operations of others in the interests of their 

 own branch of the trade, but the North Sea 

 trawlers now called on the Government for inter- 

 ference with their own methods. An association 

 of persons interested in the sea-fisheries and the 

 allied trades — the National Sea-Fisheries Protection 

 Association — had been formed in 1882, and by the 

 end of 1892 this body was said to represent, 

 directly or indirectly, 80,000 persons. The grow- 

 ing depletion of the North Sea fisheries was dis- 

 cussed at successive annual meetings of the 

 Association, and at most of these meetings there 

 was an almost unanimous opinion that the cause 

 of the falling off in the yield of the North Sea 

 grounds was the extensive capture of immature 

 fishes on certain grounds off the Dutch, Danish, 

 and German coasts. Resolutions to this effect 

 were agreed on at meetings of the Association 

 in 1888, 1890, and 1892 ; and the Conference 

 of 1888 (in which, as in others, the influence 

 of trawlers predominated) agreed to petition the 

 Government to enter into negotiations with the 

 Continental Powers for the establishment of a 

 prohibition, by international law, of the capture 

 of immature fish. At the Conference which met 

 at Hull in 1890, the delegates agreed, both for 

 themselves individually and for the companies and 

 fleets which they represented, to abstain from 



