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Part III. — Eleventh Annual Report 



whitings being specially noticeable. All along the coast a marked 

 feature in the fishing has been the diminished takes of whitings. 



Over-Fishing of the Sea, and its Remedies. 



The falling off in the relative abundance of certain of the food 

 fishes, especially in the waters near the shore, when compared with 

 the increase in the means of capture, is not confined to the East 

 Coast of Scotland. In England, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, 

 Holland, France, Spain, Canada, Newfoundland — indeed, wherever 

 sea fisheries are prosecuted on a large scale — similar complaints are 

 made; and in many of these countries remedial measures, by 

 stringent regulations and the artificial propagation of the more 

 valuable of the food fishes, have been carried into effect. It has 

 now been made clear by statistical and scientific investigations 

 that the seas around our coasts are not the inexhaustible store- 

 houses of food material that they were thought to be less than a 

 generation ago. The doctrine that the operations of man cannot 

 disturb the balance of life in the sea, and diminish or exhaust the 

 supply of valuable food fishes, is now abandoned by fishery 

 authorities almost everywhere. During the past generation an 

 immense increase has taken place in the extent and efficiency of 

 the machinery of capture, and the introduction of steam-power has 

 revolutionised the industry. The statistics collected by the Board 

 show that, while forty-five years ago the average equipment in 

 fishing material of each Scottish fisherman was 1306 square yards 

 of netting and 142 fathoms of line, it is now 3917 square yards of 

 netting and 724 fathoms of line. Owing to the depletion of inshore 

 waters, fishermen are compelled nowadays to go further and further 

 to sea in the search for more productive grounds, and for many 

 years they have ranged the northern parts of the North Sea, 

 frequently fishing within sight of the Norwegian coast. Larger 

 and better boats, a much greater quantity of fishing material, and 

 a more extensive area of fishing-grounds seem to be necessary in 

 order to keep up the supply of fish. 



It has been shown that flat-fish, particularly the large valuable 

 kinds, such as soles, turbot, and plaice, are more susceptible of 

 diminution in numbers than round- fish. Notwithstanding a great 

 increase in the number and efficiency of beam-trawlers, the 

 quantity of these fish captured is decreasing yearly. The chief 

 scientific reasons which serve to explain this circumstance are, 

 that most flat-fishes exist in much less numbers than round -fishes, 

 the extent of their migrations is more restricted, and their rate 

 of growth and attainment of sexual maturity slower. Hence the 

 reproductive capacity of the species within a given area and period 

 is relatively small, and the destructive operations of man may bear 

 a large ratio to the normal destruction from natural causes. By 

 the experiments on the migration of fishes, described in the present 

 report, it is shown that a large percentage of the fish on a particular 

 ground may be captured by fishing operations — that the annual 

 harvest of a given area bears a much larger proportion to the stock 

 than has been commonly supposed. Of the plaice marked and 



