19G 
Part III. — Eiyhth Annual Report 
nine or ten inches, or of a thousand at one inch ; its natural chances of 
survival to the reproductive stage being so much greater. It is possible 
that in the case of the turbot, brill, and sole, there has been overfishing (or 
the capture of too many adults) as well as destruction of the young. 
But in that case there is all the more need for the protection of immature 
individuals. 
Passing now to the problem of how the capture and destruction of 
immature specimens may be prevented, it will be found to be exceedingly 
difficult of solution. It might be easy enough to interdict the sale of fish 
under a certain size as recommended by the Commission in 1866 under 
certain contingencies (vide p. 159). But this will be productive of positive 
harm, unless it can be also ensured that the fish under the prohibited size 
are either not captured at all, or if, are returned to the sea in such a condi- 
tion as will enable them to live. In the case of line fishing there would be 
less difficulty, for the fish are nearly always active and vigorous when 
the line is hauled, and the immature forms would almost all live if at 
once returned to the sea. But how is it to be carried out in beam- 
trawling ? 
If immature flat-fish were special in their distribution — if their 
nurseries could be defined as apart from the habitats of the adults — 
the problem could be easily solved by the prohibition of beam-trawling 
in those areas. But it cannot be said that the young of the valuable 
flat-fishes have a special distribution apart from the adults, except to a 
certain extent in the case of plaice. I have shown that immature plaice 
abound in the territorial waters and are rare offshore (unless perhaps at 
certain banks, like the Dogger). Adult plaice are found scattered about 
in the ^territorial waters — in some localities, as the Pentland Firth, they 
are said to spawn there — but, relatively to the young, they are far more 
abundant offshore. I believe that the prohibition of beam-trawling in 
territorial waters would go a long way to protect immature plaice. The 
trawling experiments of the 4 Garland ' have shown that while nearly all 
fish have diminished during the last two years in the territorial waters of 
the East Coast, where trawling is prohibited, plaice alone have increased. 
But it is certainly different with immature turbot and brill, and 
probably also with soles. Young turbot and brill are probably at least as 
abundant at distances from shore as in the territorial waters (vide pp. 171, 
172), and it would be impossible to protect them by prohibition of trawling 
within defined areas — without at the same time preventing the capture of 
adults. Soles are rare on the East Coast ; but from the evidence obtained 
I think it will be found that the distribution of the young at present 
caught by the trawl is not specially in territorial waters or definable 
areas. 
On the other hand, if all immature fish were equal in size it would 
be possible to prevent the capture of the great majority by simply 
enlarging the mesh of the net (vide p. 182). But a serious difficulty 
arises from the fact that the largest immature individuals of different 
species have very different sizes (p. 163). A mesh which would allow all 
immature plaice, witch soles, flounders, lemon soles, and probably soles 
(Solea vulgaris), to escape, and at the same time be capable of capturing 
the adults, would capture large numbers of immature turbot and brill. 
A mesh which would allow the escape of all immature lemon soles, 
flounders, dabs, &c., would capture large quantities of immature plaice, 
soles, turbot, brill, &c. Similarly, a mesh which would allow all 
immature turbot and brill to escape, would not retain many fully adult 
plaice, soles, flounders, &c. — and it would probably not be worth fishing 
with it. If a size of mesh were fixed which would permit the escape of 
