APPENDIX. 



DISCUSSION OF OFFICIAL FISHERY STATISTICS 



By J. Travis Jenkins, D.Sc, 



Superintendent of the Lancashire and Western 



Sea Fisheries District. 



From time to time quotations have appeared in former 

 quarterly reports as to the weight and value of fish landed in 

 the Lancashire and Western Sea Fisheries District, these 

 figures being based on the monthly returns furnished by the 

 Board of Agriculture and Fisheries (formerly by the Board of 

 Trade). 



The question of the efficacy of the protection to the 

 fisheries of the district afforded by the bye-laws of the Joint 

 Committee, obviously can only be solved by reference to care- 

 fully compiled statistics, and, with a view of drawing attention 

 to the question of fishery statistics, I have gone into the whole 

 of the statistical information available at present, and a brief 

 resume of the results of this inquiry is appended. At the outset 

 it must be clearly understood that the results here given are 

 taken from the figures furnished monthly by the Central 

 Authority, and that no other official statistics of any kind are 

 available. It is a matter for regret that more detailed informa- 

 tion is not available, because, as will be explained below, except 

 in a few instances the figures throw but little light on the fish 

 actually caught in or near the district under the jurisdiction of 

 the Joint Committee. 



The Central Authority furnish three distinct returns : — 



(1) The title of the last available paper is quoted : — 

 A " copy of statistical tables and memorandum relating 

 to the Sea Fisheries of the United Kingdom in the year 1902 ; 

 including also a return showing the quantity of fish carried by 

 railway from each of the principal ports of England and Wales, 

 Scotland and Ireland, in each year, from 1897 to 1902 inclusive." - 



