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JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 



thus destroyed annually in these shrimp nets. Shrimps are the 

 food of cod and other fish. Remove this source of food, and the 

 fish desert the localities where they were accustomed to find it. 



The maintenance and protection of both breeding and feeding 

 ground are the essential requisites for abundance of produce in 

 fish and re-production of stock. The bottom of the sea is an 

 immense pasturage, afi'ording every class of vegetable life suitable, 

 not only for food for certain classes of marine creatures, but shelter 

 for the crustaceans, which live chiefly at the bottom. Here all 

 the lower orders of zoophytes, which serve as food for the higher 

 orders of fish, thrive in rich abundance, until the ruthless, ravag- 

 ing trawl scrapes them all clean out of existence, and lays waste 

 the ground, which is quickly deserted for want of the food which 

 it formerly supplied. Rocky spots here and there, which defy the 

 inroads of the trawl, remain to show, by the fish which still haunt 

 them, what might be again the abundance if proper management 

 were adopted. 



Fish are known to spawn usually in shallow waters ; and here 

 also weeds grow most luxuriantly, afi'ording both shelter and food 

 for the young fry. The trawl sweeps over these spots, and count- 

 less millions of the ova of fish, which would be brood for the 

 forthcoming season, are thus annually destroyed. 



The ground seines, which scrape our bays and estuaries with 

 impunity, some having meshes small enough to catch prawns, do 

 an equal amount of damage. Cart-loads of the fry of soles, plaice, 

 whiting, haddock, codlings, &c., are turned out from them fit only 

 for manure. 



The drift nets, which are spread at night to intercept our 

 migratory fish, such as mackerel, pilchards, herrings, &c., are at 

 the mercy of these ruthless ocean rangers. Under cover of the 

 night, the trawler does not hesitate to sweep over these nets, and 

 tear them to pieces, thereby sacrificing at one fell swoop the con- 

 tents, worth perhaps hundreds of pounds, and the owners have no 

 redress. One night not long since 200 drift boats withdrew their 

 immense string of floating nets, to prevent having them torn to 

 pieces by the trawlers, one of which had already destroyed one 

 lot of nets. Of course the produce of that night was entirely 

 missed, and the loss sustained by the poor fishermen very heavy. 



Not only does the trawl thus directly interfere with this very 

 important fishing operation, which is one of the most lucrative 



