XCIV BRITISH PISHEEIE3. 



For the purpose of arriving at conclusions respecting tlie condition of the 

 sea-fisheries, it would, be well to briefly consider of ■ what do the more 

 important classes of fish used as food consist ? It must be evident that what 

 would benefit sharks and dog-fishes might be inimical to herrings ;' cod-fishes 

 might be deleteriously aiFected by what would be harmless to sprats apd 

 mackei'el : while our soles and flat-fishes might be entirely destroyed 

 without such doing any damage to the wrasses. Although it seems 

 improbable that any species of sea-fish could be exterminated by man, it is 

 certainly a fact that he is able to annihilate a fishery or drive the fish 

 away from where he can capture them, which has the same effect on the 

 cost of the article. 



Our markets are largely supplied with sea-fish from three principal classes : 

 (1) such as come in large assemblages or shoals, as the mackerel, herring, 

 pilchard, and sprat, and which may be considered, as a rule, to be surface 

 swimmers ; (2) mid-water and bottom-feeders in the littoral zone, as the 

 cod, haddock, and their allies, which are predaceous in their habits ; 

 (3) ground-fish, as soles, turbot, and other flat-fishes. One of these classes 

 being in a satisfactory state does not necessarily prove that all the 

 others arfe. If the cod-fishes were exterminated, this would remove 

 one more of the enemies from the herrings, and might in fact be conducive 

 to their increase. 



Herrings may be scared away from a' district by several' causes,* and 

 have been known to absent themselves for years, perhaps the surface food 

 which they consume may have b'een deficient in quantity, or even absent ; or 

 they may be driven further out to sea, and breed there, resulting in the young 

 taking on deep-sea proclivities, and probably forming a deep-sea race. . If 

 these shoals no longer frequent the shores, the amount of excrementitious 

 deposit which would fall from them would be lost to the invertebrate forms 

 which subsist in siich places. Irrespective of this, herrings off the east 

 coast of Scotland being now further out to sea than was the case a few 

 years since, larger boats have to be employed by fishermen, while there is 

 no harbour accommodation for them ; consequently storms are more fatal 

 than formerly. It is to be regretted that our Fishery Inspectors do 

 not yearly collect general fishery statistics for the United Kingdom ; 

 there are 'no means of finding out whether coarser kinds are, or are not, 

 taking the place of the better sorts in our markets ; soles may be as abundant 

 in regard to numbers in 1883 as in 1882, but it would be desirable to know 

 if their- size has augmented or diminished. 



It has been said that doing away with fishery laws has been purposely 

 eff'ected in order that sea-fisheries should be left to man, to work them 



* Star-fishes have increased . enormously along the American shores, due to herrings and other 

 fishes, which feed on their spawn, having deserted the inshore ground. ' 



