242 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



publication the materials for assessing the probable effects 

 of size-limits in the case of plaice are given. But even 

 when we know what fraction of the total catch of fish 

 made is likely to be affected by the imposition of, say, an 

 eight-inch limit to plaice landed, the problem of the utility 

 of such a regulation is far from being solved. If we 

 prevent fish from being landed, we must also prevent them 

 from being caught. No useful result is attained merely 

 by preventing the capture of plaice of, say, less than eight 

 inches in length : underlying the attempt to prevent these 

 relatively valueless fish from being caught is the 

 assumption that they will grow, in a short time, to be 

 fishes of much greater commercial value. Perhaps some 

 of them may, but it must be pointed out that nothing 

 justifies us in confidently expecting that a considerable 

 proportion of the small plaice saved from capture on a 

 small-fish ground will grow to be medium-sized fish on 

 an adjacent ground. Before we embark on legislative 

 restrictions affecting the practice of the inshore fishermen, 

 we ought to be sure that the loss to these men will be much 

 more than balanced by the gain which other kinds of 

 fishermen will experience. And even when we are quite 

 sUre that this gain will be attained, the further social- 

 economic problem arises as to whether we are justified in 

 adopting legislation that is designed to operate by trans- 

 ferring a profitable fishery from one poorer, to another 

 richer, class of fishermen. This, of course is a problem 

 with which, as investigators, we have nothing to do. 



Putting the question in as concrete a form as we can, 

 the points to be considered seem to be these : — Between 

 Nelson Buoy and Liverpool Bar there is a summer and 

 autumn plaice fishery, in the course of which about one- 

 half of all the fish caught by a trawl net of six-inch mesh 

 are under eight inches in length. There is a market for 



