of the Fishery Board for Scotla7id. 
405 
tury, as many as 2000 meu deriving their subsistence in 1530 from the 
catches of herrings. Tlie lobster fishing is now the main one; it is 
prosecuted from tlie 15th September to the 15th July following. The 
oyster banks, which used to yield from 30,000 to 40,000 oysters in 
a day's fishing, are now practically fished out. The Germans propose 
to construct a large fishery harbour at Heligoland, and to run steamers 
between it and the coast ports, to bring the fish rapidly to market. 
The Conference also resolved that it is desirable, in the interests of the 
German Sea Fisheries, to establish a Zoological Station at Heligoland 
for the purpose of scientific investigation."^ An important discussion 
took place as to the utility of establishing close-times in sea fisheries. 
Dr Heincke pointed out that the question as to how far the complaints 
made of overfishing in the North Sea were justified could only be 
determined by careful and extensive investigations, especially of a 
scientific character, and referred to those of the Scotch Board. He 
admitted that immature fish were destroyed in large numbers ; but 
thought that international regulations for their protection on the high 
seas were premature, and that any such regulations would, in the 
present condition of the Gernlan deep-sea fisheries, be only a check 
on the develo}>ment of the latter. Their first concern should be to 
increase their fleets of sailing and steam fishing vessels, in order to 
secure their proper share of the produce of their native seas, and 
especially to compete with the English. This should be done, even 
at the risk of contributing to the over-fishing of the North Sea ; and 
then, should protective regulations be necessary, the voice of Germany 
would be powerful in the international council. The same sentiment 
was endorsed by most of the speakers, and by the President. Herr 
Landrath von Vorries communicated the results of an inquiry he had 
made amongst the fishermen as to the relative abundance of fish now 
and previously. All the fishermen, save those of Cranz, to which a 
number of trawlers belong, alleged that during the past five years there 
has occurred a falling off in the abundance of fish, and that the average 
size of plaice has diminished. As to the price of fish, the line-fishermen, 
who chiefly catch cod and haddock, say there has been a considerable 
fall, while the trawl and bottom net fishermen, who mainly catch flat- 
fish, state that the price has not fallen. The diminution in the number 
of fish is ascribed to the use of steam-vessels. The Conference resolved, 
that since the great majority of the German North Sea fishermen ap- 
prehend injury to the fishing with sailing-boats by the employment 
of steam-vessels, the Government should be petitioned to institute an 
inquiry thereupon ; and also that * international protective measures of 
' any kind appear at present premature, and calculated to arrest the 
' development of the German North Sea Fisheries.' It was also re- 
solved that a harbour of refuge should be constructed on the Island 
of Hela in the Baltic, and a harbour of shelter at Borkum. 
The German Fishery Department have made various scientific expedi- 
tions in the North Sea for the purpose of investigating the fishing-grounds. 
The last of these was that of the 'Sophie,' in the autumn of 1889, which 
was under the charge of Dr Heincke. f The object of the expedition was 
to inquire into the occurrence of ripe spawning herring in the eastern part 
of the North Sea, and the existence of new spawning-grounds for the 
herring, and also to carry on a series of scientific observations. Two 
* It is just announced that the Government have decided to establish a Meteoro- 
logical and Biological Station at Heligoland in connection with the scientific fishery 
investigations, and to subsidise a Marine Laboratory at the Ploner See. 
+ Mittheilungen der JSektion/ur Kiisten und Hochseefischerei, 1890, p. 5. 
