226 EVIDENCE OF A HULL TRAWLER. 



course, won't hear a bad word said of the engine by which they 

 gain their living. A Torbay fisherman, accustomed to trawling 

 for the last twenty-six years, flatly contradicts much that has 

 been said against the trawl-net. He asserts that he never took 

 or saw any spawn taken, and that only about half a hundred- 

 weight in each two tons of the fish taken is unfit for the market. 

 He does not think the fish are decreasing either in quantity or 

 size. 



A HuU trawler spoke to the following effect : — " I never saw 

 any spawn in the net. It is impossible for spawn to Be caught 

 in the net. There is often unmarketable fish, but it is only 

 when there is a strong breeze and a difficulty in getting the 

 gear on board. We generally get seven or eight hampers in a 

 haul, and one basket would perhaps be unfit for the market. 

 The hooked fish is a more saleable fish, as it has got the scales 

 and slime on it, and the trawl fish has not got the slime on it, 

 and the scales are sometimes rubbed ofi'." Some haddocks were 

 here produced which the witness said were a fair specimen. The 

 scales were on them, and on one being opened the inside was 

 found to be in an unbroken state. 



The following is a summary of the evidence given by William 

 Dawson, a very intelligent fisherman of Newbiggin, who spoke 

 from fifty years' experience : — " He had fished cod, ling, turbot, 

 and several kinds of shell-fish, but not oysters. He was still 

 engaged as a fisherman. He fished with a line for soles. The 

 number of fishermen and boats had increased. In 1808 there 

 were eight boats, and there are now about thirty boats. Fifty 

 years ago the boats were about one-third the size. The boats 

 carried just about the same lines as now. The boats now carry 

 about three times as much net as they did. The number of 

 white fish is falling off a great deal. In 1812 every boat 

 brought in more white fish than they could carry. We do not 

 go much more frequently to sea now. In the size of the fish 

 now there is not much difierence — a little smaller. The had- 

 dock and herring fisheries had decreased. . He had not noticed 

 much difference in the size, only in the quantity. There was a 

 greater number of boats engaged now in the herring-fishing — the 

 number of herring having decreased within the last ten or twelve 

 years. Little mackerel was caught there. Large quantities of 

 mackerel were off this coast at times, but they had no nets to 

 take them. Although a good many sprats were seen, they did 

 not try to catch them. The cause of the falling off in the quantity 



