396 
Part III. — Ninth Annual Report 
fisli ; (4) that it frightens away migratory fish. It appears trawling has 
been carried on in Lough Swilly for the last eighty years, but between 
1844 and 1869 it was restricted by bye-law to a certain portion only. 
The conclusions of the inspectors are, that the fishing industry in the 
lough and the quantity of fish captured by line and net-boats have greatly 
diminished, that the quantity captured by trawlers has not decreased, 
and that one of the causes of diminution in the capture of fish by net and 
line fishermen arises from the insufficiency of proper boats and gear. 
They point to the absence of means of testing the effect of closing the 
waters hy scientific investigations, and on that ground the prayer of the 
petitioning fishermen was not acceded to. 
A second report contains the results of their inquiries into trawling in 
Kenmore and Bantry Bays."^ The evidence was of the usual nature, and 
the inspectors were of opinion that the complaints had not been established 
by the evidence, and that no bye-law was at present necessary or exped- 
ient. A third inquiry was into the influences of trawling by steam 
vessels off the coasl of the county of Waterford.f The inspectors decided 
that steam-trawling should be prohibited in a part of Waterford Harbour, 
and also off a certain part of the Waterford coast. 
The Inspectors of Irish Fisheries also issued a special report on the 
mackerel fishing in Ireland at the close of the fishing in the spring of 
18y0. This spring fishing is carried on chiefly off the south and south- 
west coasts, the fish being nearly all exported fresh, packed in ice, while 
the fish obtained in the autumn are Halted in barrels and sent to America. 
1258 boats were engaged, 345 of which were Scotch or English, and 58 
French. Last year the number of boats was 712. The quantity of 
mackerel captured was 267,806 boxes, for which the fishermen received 
£182,024. 
IL CANADA. 
The Canadian Government have followed in the footsteps of their 
neighbourvS, the United States and Newfoundland, in erecting a hatchery 
for sea fishes and lobsters. Mr Wilmot, the Superintendent of Fish 
Culture in the Dominion, recently visited the Newfoundland hatchery at 
Dildo Island, and the Fishery Department have nearly completed a 
building with the necessary appliances for lobster culture on a somewhat 
large scale, at Bay View, near Pictou, on the Northumberland Strait 
in Nova Scotia. It is expected that the hatchery will be ready for 
operations in June, that a large supply of lobster ova will be readily 
obtained from the neighbouring lobster factories, and that a large output 
of young lobsters w^ill be the result. The Wilmot Automatic Glass 
Incubator, so largely employed in hatching whitefish (Coregonus) will 
be used. 
The Annual Report of the Department of Fisheries of the Dominion of 
Canada for 1889 contains an account of the yield and condition of the 
various firsheries during the year, reports from the Inspectors of Fisheries 
of the Provinces cm account of the operations in fish-breeding, inquiries 
into the pollution of rivers and the decline of oyster-grounds, and other 
matters of interest. Extensive statistical tables show the quantity and 
* Report of Inquiries held by the Inspectors of Irish Fisheries into the State of 
the Fisheries of Kenmore and Bantry Bays, and the Effects of Steam arid other 
Trawling thereon, Dublin, 1890. 
+ Report of Inquiry held by the Inspectors of Irish Fisheries into the Application 
made to them to exercise the powers given by the Steam-Trawling (Ireland) Act, 
1889, and prohibit steam-trawling within three miles of the county Waterford 
coast. 
