SCIENTIFIC WORK IN THE SEA-FISHERIES. 209 



procured by the ' Garland ' is therefore small, and furnishes a 

 most inadequate basis for any conclusions as to the effect of the 

 closure of so wide an area as the Moray Firth." There is little 

 satisfaction in this, especially as the Board was to show — by the 

 closure of such offshore waters — how the spawning fishes which 

 supplied the inshore with eggs and young could be protected. 

 Moreover, so far as known, the proofs of the injurious effects of 

 trawling on the fisheries have not yet been demonstrated by the 

 Board. The idea that the eggs of the fishes of the Moray Firth 

 supply the eastern shores of Scotland and the offshore is chi- 

 merical. Besides, both are independent of such supply. 



Science, therefore, declines responsibility for such a closure, 

 for, as will subsequently be shown, it is satisfied that the closure 

 even of small areas is not followed by an increase of fishes, and 

 that the supply of eggs and young may be altogether independent 

 of such closure. 



No one will, however, deny the right of the Government to 

 close an area for the protection of the lines and nets of fishermen 

 should they be constantly destroyed by trawlers, and it has to be 

 remembered that about ten thousand fine fishermen frequent 

 the shores of the Moray Firth. Nor would exception be taken 

 if it were proved that such a measure was indispensable for 

 the existence of these fishermen. But such grounds must be 

 frankly stated and openly upheld. No thin veil of so-called 

 science should obscure them. 



Before entering into the consideration of the results of the 

 ten years' experiments of the Scotch Fishery Board's ship 

 ' Garland,' it is necessary, in sequence, to notice a Parliamentary 

 Committee of seventeen members (with Mr. Marjoribanks as 

 Chairman) in 1893, and which with great promptitude presented 

 a Eeport within five months of its appointment. This Com- 

 mittee had the advantage of the statistics collected by the Board 

 of Trade, and by the Scotch Fishery Board, and of the evidence 

 of scientific men of experience in the fisheries. The Committee 

 reported no falling off in the Herring fishery, that the Cod and 

 Haddock fishery required no legislation, but that the flat-fishes 

 — especially Soles and Plaice — had diminished, and that a size- 

 limit (eight inches for Soles and Plaice, and ten inches for Turbot 

 and Brill) should be fixed ; further, that the three-mile limit 



