48 



On the 26th November, 1894, the Joint Committee recom- 

 mended the following bye-law be adopted : — 



" That no person shall remove from a fishery any 

 cockle which will pass through a square aperture 

 measuring seven-eighths of an inch on each side of the 

 square, or three and a half inches measured round the 

 four sides." 



With regard to the curve showing the weight in tons of 

 cockles and mussels sent away from Cark station, it may be 

 remarked that the bulk of the material undoubtedly consists 

 of cockles. 



It will be noted that the beds rapidly deteriorate in pro- 

 ductivity, notably from 1883 to 1886, and again from 1890 to 

 1895, but they are evidently capable of rapid recovery, as was 

 the case between 1886 and 1890. The rapid fall from 1883 to 

 1886, and the still greater increase from 1886 to 1890, must be 

 due to natural causes, since the Lancashire Sea Fisheries 

 Committee did not come into existence until 1890. In Mr. 

 Dawson's Report for January, 1902, we find the following 

 statement regarding cockles and mussels. 



" Unfortunately, a number of fishermen will persist in 

 gathering the fish from those beds where they are most 

 plentiful, irrespective of size, and this floods the market with 

 small fish. It is more particularly at the northern side of 

 Morecambe Bay that this is done, and the men in that district, 

 I am sorry to find, take no care whatever to preserve the beds." 



While part of the rapid decline in productivity may be 

 attributed to the carelessness of the fishermen, part must also 

 be attributed to natural causes over which we have no control. 

 Reference has been made to this (above) in speaking of the 

 winters of 1894 and 1895. 



One hopeful sign is the rapid recovery that these beds are 

 capable of making, and this is also exemplified by the case of 



