12 



1st Class Boats. — 15 tons and over. 



2nd Class Boats. — Under 15 tons register, but with sufficient deck and 

 cabin accommodation for the crew to live on board. 



3rd Class Boats. — Under 15 tons register and partly decked, but not 

 sufficiently for the crew to live on board. 



3rd (a) Class Boats. — Small open boats propelled by sails or oars. 



It would, at any rate, be interesting to collect statistics 

 for, say, three years in some manner and then compare the 

 figures with those furnished, by the Central Authority. Even 

 should the above or some similar scheme be found im- 

 practicable on account of the expense and extra labour 

 involved, it ought to be a fairly easy matter to collect returns 

 of fish caught outside the Irish Sea area (an area to be 

 defined) and which are landed at ports in the district. 



Probably this might be feasible provided the co-operation 

 of the owners of the steam trawlers was obtained, and it 

 would probably be found more suitable from the Committee's 

 point of view thau the attempt to collect returns on a much 

 larger scale — returns which could not attain to completeness 

 on account of Manx and Brixham boats fishing within the 

 Irish Sea area and landing their fish outside the district. It 

 will be noticed that the term Irish Sea area is often used in 

 preference to the territorial waters ; since, although the Com- 

 mittee have no jurisdiction over the Irish Sea as a whole, the 

 fish caught there may frequent the inshore waters at some stage 

 of their life history, and consequently may be potentially pro- 

 tected by the Committee's bye-laws. 



We come now to the question of the figures already in our 

 possession. Can they be reasonably utilised to furnish any 

 record of the Irish Sea fisheries as a whole ? When one con- 

 siders what we have and what we might have had there is but 

 one feeling — that of regret. 



