14 
the benefit intended to the older class of fishermen. My last year's 
report, and further evidence conveyed in this one, show that the 
white fishing is now practically in the hands of the trawlers. There 
are one or two favoured in-shore places where the fishes still tend 
to congregate during the general migration to the coast in the 
winter, curiously enough, however, some months later evidently 
than was the rule up to a few years ago ; hut no one will doubt the 
serious general diminution of fishes along the coast which has had 
such a detrimental effect on line fishing, and the condition of certain 
of the fishing villages. Were it not for other kinds of fishing upon 
which for the most part the trawler can exercise no competitive or 
harmful effect, or at all events a harmful effect which has never yet 
been clearly proved, fishing from the villages along the coast would 
have long before now been at an end. 
The following summary of the statistics gathered by the Fishery 
Officers for a few recent years illustrate this: — 
White Fish. 
NORTHERN DISTRICT. 
189 3. 
189G. 
1897. 
1898. 
Tons Cwts. 
. £ 
Tons. Cwts. 
£ 
Tons. Cwts. 
£ 
Tons Cwts. 
£ 
1,399 9 
1,135 14 
10,623 
701 11 
7,577 
457 14 
5,279 
SOUTHERN 
DISTRICT. 
(Excluding North Shields). 
1,271 15 
16,740 
1,185 13 
13,795 
657 15 
7,735 
603 19 
6,574 
NORTH SHIELDS. 
0,213 10 139,430 7,545 13 122.526 8,212 15 139,742 9,106 5 140,815 
It is of course true that the decline shown by the figures in the 
in-shore line fishing is to some extent brought about by the smaller 
number of boats which have each year prosecuted this branch of the 
fishing industry. But the very fact that such a diminution has 
occurred in the number of boats and the number of men employed 
serves still further to demonstrate that the decrease indicated is not 
apparent, but actual. 
If these numbers show that the conditions of the white fishing, 
as far as the line fishermen are concerned, are getting worse than 
better, a most interesting and careful analysis of the statistics 
relating to trawl fishing with especial reference to the North Sea by 
Mr. Walter Garstang* indicates that the average catches of trawlers 
*The Impoverishment of the Sea. A critical summary of the Experimental 
and Statistical Evidence bearing upon the Alleged Depletion of the Trawling 
Grounds. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 
vol. vi., No. 1, July, 1990, pp. 1—69. 
t 
