of the Fishery Board for Scotland, 
157 
II. —THE DISTRIBUTION OF IMMATURE SEA FISH, AND 
THEIR CAPTURE BY VARIOUS MODES OF FISHING. By 
Dr T. Wemyss Fulton, Secretary for Scientific Investigations. 
I. INTRODUCTORY. 
There are few questions connected with the prosecution of sea fisheries 
of greater immediate interest than that relating to the capture of im- 
mature fish. It is a subject related more or less to almost every mode 
of fishing; and it is the subject about which cluster most of the objections 
urged against certain of these modes, such as beam trawling, shrimping, and 
the use of the bag-net and seine. The complaint of the wasteful destruc- 
tion of young fish is a very old one. At the present time it has assumed 
especial importance in connection with beam trawling ; and an Inter- 
national Conference, under the auspices of the National Sea Fisheries 
Protection Association, has been called to meet in London in July to con- 
sider the subject. 
Careful investigations have recently been made by the Fishery Board, 
by means of the steamer ' Garland,' into the distribution and capture of 
immature fish on the East Coast of Scotland. Before describing these 
investigations and the results that have been obtained, it may be well to 
glance at the history of the question. 
1. Previous Legislation. 
Complaints as to the wasteful destruction of the fry and brood of fish 
have been made from very early times, and a number of Acts of Parlia- 
ment have been passed dealing with the matter. As was to be expected, 
the earlier Acts related exclusively to river and lake fisheries. Thus, in 
the reign of Edward I., it was made penal to destroy young salmon - 
' from the midst of April to the Nativity of St. John Baptist.' * 
In the reign of Richard II. this clause was re-enacted, with the 
addition that ' no Fisher or Garth-man, nor any other ' was to be allowed 
to use nets called ' Stalkers, nor other nets or engines whatsoever they be 
1 by the which the Fry or the Breed of the Salmons, Lampreys, or any 
other Fish, may in any wise be taken or destroyed.'! 
In the reign of Edward III. a petition was made to Parliament in the 
session 1376-77, stating that the abundance of fish in creeks and havens 
had been greatly diminished by the employment of a trawl-net (called 
Wondyrc]ioum%), which captured all small fish that entered it, and also 
destroyed the spawn and brood of fish. 
The first Act of Parliament I have found to specifically deal with the 
wasteful capture of immature sea fish, was passed in the reign of 
Henry VII.§ This Act states that while 1 dyvers statutes and 
Edward I. c. 47 (1284). 
t 13 Richard II., c. 19 (1389-90). 
X It might be supposed that this net was not identical with the modern beam trawl, 
hut was in reality like the Wondcrkuil, at present used in the Zuider-see, and which is 
slung between tw r o boats which run before the wind ; but in the petition it is said 
to be made after the fashion of a drag for oysters. 
§ Henry VII. o. 21 (1488-89). 
