OUK SEA FISHERIES. 249 



worked, can be taken in the pots constructed for the 

 purpose, and which do no mischief.^ The remedy 

 here is plainly to prohibit trawling in shallow 

 water, to place a penalty upon the destruction of fry, 

 to appoint a fence-time, and to empower the coast- 

 guard to enforce it. There is no other method, and 

 the coastguard, as regards smuggling, have now reaUy 

 very little to do which is worth their employment ; 

 whereas in the protecting of our fisheries, and seeing 

 that the proper regulations as regards the machinery, 

 fence-times, &c. be enforced, they would render most 

 valuable assistance, and they are to a small extent 



1 I will instance further one case which has lately come under 

 my notice. On the coast of Suffolk, about the town of Aldeburgh, 

 there were formerly large quantities of codling, whiting, flounders, 

 and many other fish. These were so abundant, that it was only 

 necessary to cast a line into the sea from off the beach, when a good 

 take of these and other fish could be made ; while a long line, with 

 a hundred or two of hooks, set at some distance from the shore, 

 would well repay the fisherman for his trouble. Visitors came to 

 the spot as a convenient watering-place, and the fishermen in the 

 summer-time found that, by using their small trawls for shrimps, 

 they could earn a trifling remuneration with very little trouble. 

 These trawls were 'accordingly used, in two or three fathoms of 

 water, on the banks where the fish naturally came to spawn ; and the 

 result of the persistence in this species of fishing has been, that the 

 fish have in a great measure been driven from the spot, and line- 

 fishing there is now not worth the trouble of prosecuting. There 

 are many other places along the coast where the same result has 

 ensued from a similar practice. 



