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Part III. — Eighth Annual Report 
' ordenaunces ' have been made for the preservation of the fry and brood 
of fish in the rivers of England, none had been made ' for savynge and 
' kepynge of frye and brood of Fysshe resortyng out of the See and Salt- 
waters in to Havens and Crekes wythin the sayd Reame,' and is passed 
for the preservation of such fry in the Nasse and Haven of Orforde in 
Suffolk (Orfordness). It appears from this Act that the fry were destroyed 
not by the beam trawl, but by stow-nets or bag-nets, and that they were used 
for manure, &c. * In late dayes,' the Act quaintly continues, ' for a 
1 singuler covetyse and lucre certeyne persones have used to set and 
' ordeyne certeyne botes called Stallbotes festened with ankers, havyng 
( wyth theym suche maner unresonable nettes and engynes,' that all kinds 
of fry and brood are destroyed — ' Wyth whiche frye and broode the said 
' persones wythe parte thereof fede their hogges, and the residue they put 
' and ley it in grete pyttes in to the grounde, which elles wolde torn to 
' such perelous infeccion of eyre that noo persone thider resortyng sholde 
' it abyde or suffre.'* The ground for interference with this bag-net 
fishing was that it ' causeth grete scarcite of Fysshe in that countrees 
1 (Norfolk and Suffolk) where afore this tyme were wounte to be grete 
' plente.' The penalty was £10 for every offence, and the justices of the 
peace were empowered to inquire and examine into the kinds of nets and 
engines used. In 1491 this Act was confirmed by parliament, on the 
ground that the supply of fish had been increased by its operation. 
In the above Act no fish are specified, and no attempt is made to define 
what fry or brood is. In an Act passed during the reign of Elizabeth, how- 
ever, a minimum size is fixed for certain fish.f This Act was for the 
preservation of the 1 spawn, fry, and young breed of Eels, Salmons, Pikes, ' 
and of all other river fish, with which 1 in divers places they feed Swine 
* and Bogs,' ' and otherwise, lamentable and horrible to be reported, destroy 
1 the same, to the great Hindrance and Decay of the Commonwealth.' By 
this Act no one was allowed after 1st June to kill a pike under 10 
inches, a salmon under 16 inches, a trout under 8 inches, or a barbel 
under 1 2 inches ; the use of all engines except a trammel with a mesh of 
at least 2 J inches broad was prohibited. In the reign of James, and in 
subsequent periods in the seventeenth century, many petitions were 
presented and bills introduced for the purpose of dealing with the 
wasteful capture of small fish, and severe measures were enforced for the 
suppression of the employment of nets with illegal size of mesh. The 
first Act in which I have found a definition of undersized sea fish 
attempted, was passed in 1714 during the reign of George I.J 
Clause 4 of this Act states that, ' of late years the Breed and Fry of 
1 Seafish has been greatly prejudiced and destroyed by the using of Nets of 
1 too small Size or Mesh and makes any person liable to a penalty of 
£20 who shall use ' at Sea, upon the Coast of that Part of Great Britain 
' called England, any Traul-net, Drag-net, or Set-net whatsoever for the 
1 catching of any kind of Fish (except Herrings, Pilchards, Sprats, or 
1 Lavidnian) which hath any Mesh or Moke of less Size than three inches 
1 and a half at least from knot to knot.' This Act prohibits the sale of 
certain kinds of fish under a fixed size, and is interesting as showing the 
opinions held at the beginning of last century as to what immature fish 
are. Clause 7 prohibits the bringing ashore, sale, offering, or exposing 
for sale or barter, of 'any unsizeable fish,' that is to say under the 
* This fishery is at the present day called in Holland the Staalboomen-visscherij, 
and the produce in the Zuider-see is largly used as food for ducks, &c, and as 
manure (vide Dr Hoek's Rapport over Ankerkuil- en Staalboomen- visscherij, Leiden, 
1888.) 
t 1 Elizabeth, c. 17 (1558-9). 
t 1 George I., st. 2, c. 18 (1714-16). 
