of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



135 



It is seen from the yearly totals that although very great variations 

 occur from year to year, in 1898 the take was slightly larger than the 

 total in 1883; these two were the years in the period in which the 

 yield of the fishery reached 3,500,000 crabs. The number of creels 

 owned by the fishermen has been entered for the seven years 1893-1899 

 inclusive. There is no evidence to show what proportion of these 

 creels were actually employed in fishing for crabs, but as they do not 

 last very long, but require continual repair or renewal, it is probable 

 that a very small percentage, if any, was unemployed. If, then, it be 

 conceded that the number of creels returned as belonging to the fisher- 

 men were actually used, we see that an increase in catching gear does 

 not imply an increase in the take. Thus in 1893, with 69,000 creels, the 

 catch was 3,305,000 crabs; and in 1894 and 1895, with a greater number 

 of creels, viz., 75,000 and 72,000, fewer crabs, namely 2,548,200, were 

 captured. Greater catches were obtained in 1896 and 1897 than in 1894 

 and 1899, when a larger number of creels was owned. It is therefore 

 apparent that an increase in the catching gear is not always accompanied 

 by an increased catch. The only conclusion which is at present permissible 

 is that a decline in the fishing is not indicated. Nor, on the other hand, is 

 there any indication of regular increase in the number of crabs. Every- 

 thing seems to point to the probability that the fishing is carried on to its 

 fullest extent. Previous to the passing of the Crabs and Lobsters Act 

 of 1877, there was seemingly a deterioration ; since then, judging from 

 the period above cited, such deterioration has apparently ceased. The 

 provisions of the Act, prohibiting the sale of soft crabs and of hard 

 under-sized crabs, might then be regarded as having effected a desired 

 improvement. But, nevertheless, the exemption in favour of the use of 

 these two classes of crabs as bait left the fishing, in those districts where 

 it is carried on during the whole year, in a state similar to what obtained 

 previous to the passing of the Act. The ground frequented by crab- 

 fishers is altogether littoral, seldom extending more than four to five 

 miles from the shore, although, as one witness stated before the Com- 

 mission,* crabs may be got on the haddock lines shot in the Moray 

 Firth 10 to 15 miles offshore. The crabs which were taken by the 

 trawlers were got during inshore trawling mainly. It is important to 

 consider what percentage of the catch of the crabs is protected by the 

 Act. So far as the ten catches which were measured (Table IX.) 

 may be taken as representative, the percentage of crabs below 4| inches 

 was 12*5 per cent. That proportion may, then, be taken as the extent 

 of the protection of small crabs, if they are not used for bait. But their 

 general destruction for this purpose renders the Act quite ineffective. 

 The protection to soft crabs is also more apparent than real, for where 

 the crab-fishing is pursued during autumn and winter the permission to 

 bait their lines with soft crabs is largely taken advantage of. In regard 

 to these two provisions, then, the Crab and Lobster Act was to a large 

 extent inoperative. Berried crabs are afforded protection irrespective 

 of the prohibition of their sale enacted by the Act ; for, as Wilson 

 and Cunningham point out, in this corroborating the evidence 

 furnished to the Commission, the berried crab seldom appears in the 

 crab-pot. At Dunbar very few berried crabs are got in the year. 

 Notwithstanding, then, the fact of the meagreness of the protection to 

 the mature group, the takes of crabs have not permanently decreased. 



The second aim of regulation of a fishing is to increase its profit. 

 Petersen,t in his work on the commercial flat-fishes of Denmark, says : — 



* Reports on the Crab and Lobster Fisheries, 1877, evidence for Scotland, pp. 39, 40. 

 f Report by the Danish Biological Station to the Home Department, IV., 1893, Copenhagen, 

 1894, p. 67. 



