416 
Part III.-- Ninth Annual Report 
There was, however, no scarcity of seed for the lots. On the Wester 
Schelde ten to twelve thousand barrels were gathered, and over 25,000 
from the public banks in the Easter Schelde and Grevelingen ; other 
places furnished over 12,000 barrels. The price of mussel seed was low, 
from 20 to 35 cents per barrel. It is noted that much trouble was caused 
by the star-fishes, which appear to increase greatly subsequently to a good 
'spat.' In Grevelingen they were so abundant that sixteen fishermen 
got more than 200 baskets per day, which sold (for manure) at 5 cents 
per basket. In the Zandkreek 16 francs per week were gained. 
XII. BELGIUM. 
As mentioned in a previous Report,"^ much attention has been given in 
Belgium to the question of the capture and destruction of immature fish. 
In a recent memoir on the subject, M. Auguste Borgers, member of the 
Commission of Inquiry into the Fisheries, discusses the subject very fully, 
with special reference to the territorial waters of Belgium, f The subject 
is considered in a number of chapters on the diminution in the supply of 
fish, the destruction of fish by trawling and shrimping, the remedies, and 
the regulations which should be adopted. The work contains a full review 
and discussion of the subject, and especially of the investigations of the 
Fishery Board for Scotland and the fishery departments in Holland and 
France. The memoir is a result of the International Fisheries Conference 
in London, and is due to the representations of M. S^ve, the Belgian 
delegate at the conference, to the Commercial and Maritime Association ^ 
of Ostend, of which M. Borgers is treasurer. The author points out that 
the immature fish question is at present the most important one in all 
countries in which sea fisheries are carried on. In Belgium the depopula- 
tion of the territorial waters has for a considerable time attracted the 
attention of the authorities, but hitherto no restrictive regulations have 
been enforced. Two great Commissions of Inquiry into the condition of 
the Belgian fisheries have been held in recent times — one in 1865 and the 
other in 1888. It is interesting to note that the conclusions of the earlier 
Commission, like those of the contemporary Commission in England, were 
against any regulations in regard to place, time, or mode of fishing for 
sea-fish. The eminent biologist, Van Beneden, who was a leading member 
of the Belgian Commission of 1865, was as much opposed as was Professor 
Huxley to restrictions of this nature, and on the same general grounds 
relfiting to the inexhaustible wealth of the ocean. Van Beneden held 
that the discovery of Sars that the eggs of the cod were pelagic, and 
that the embryo developed while in suspension in the sea militated against 
the alleged injuriousness of the destruction of fry along the coast. To 
quote M. Borgers : — * M. Van Beneden was convinced that the action of 
* man exercised no influence on the diminution of fish. The fecundity of 
* fish ia so great, the quantity of immature fish destroyed is so small in 
' comparison with the immensity of the sea, that,' said M. Van Beneden, 
' it did not matter where or when the fishery was carried on, or with what 
* engines, man was unable to disturb the equilibrium which the Creator 
' had established between destruction and reproduction — between life and 
' death.' In Belgium, as in other countries, there has been progress from 
the general theoretical views of 1865, and it a|)pears that the fishermen 
and those interested in the fisheries call for regulations. The destruction 
* Eighth Annual Report of the Fishery Board for Scotland, Part III. p. 374, 1890. 
t La diminution du poisson Ic long des cotes maritimes. Association Comrmrciale 
maritime industrielle et agricole, Ostend, 1890. 
