SEA- FISHERIES LABORATORY. 231 



PAKT IV. 



Practical Administrative Questions. 



One reason why these researches were undertaken was to 

 provide information that would be of use to the administrators. 

 It was assumed, to begin with, that there might be an 

 impoverishment of the Irish Sea plaice fisheries, and that 

 something might have to be done to arrest this. In the past 

 that " something " has generally been a legislative restriction 

 or prohibition — that is, the fishermen have been forbidden to 

 do this or that at one time or another and have been prosecuted 

 when they insisted on doing whatever was forbidden by 

 by-laws or statutes. Lately, the tendency has been towards 

 constructive administration — scientific research, the dissemina- 

 tion of intelligence or the promotion of schemes of development, 

 but so little successful has this kind of work been in England, 

 that it may be regarded as rather alien to the traditions (such 

 as they are) of fishery administration. Here, therefore, we 

 are obliged to suggest in what directions the results of investiga- 

 tion point — those directions being assumed to be restrictions 

 of one kind or other. We assume that such questions as these 

 are being discussed — the prohibition of fishing in certain 

 places or at certain times ; size-limits below which plaice may 

 not be legally captured or landed ; prohibitions or restrictions 

 of the operations of vessels propelled by steam or internal 

 combustion engines ; restrictions on the dimensions and forms 

 of trawl, or other kinds of nets, etc. Now a full discussion of 

 such measures can only be attempted when there are definite 

 proposals, and so we can only indicate, in the most general 

 kind of way, how the data summarised in this respect are to 

 be used. We begin with the question — Is there an impoverish- 

 ment of the Irish Sea plaice grounds ? 



