42 
move decreased in numbers and in quality. Trawlers say there 
is no doubt that plaice have become very scarce not only near the 
coast but in the North Sea generally. 
Sixth. In the case of the crab and lobster, we can make an 
attempt to improve our local fisheries by putting a stop to fishing 
during a season which has been proven to be a very destructive one, 
and also by protecting the “berried” females. But it is quite 
manifest that measures which may be suggested for the improve- 
ment of the white fishing bring us into touch with a difficult 
economic and international problem. We do not possess the 
necessary facts in regard to the life-histories, migrations and 
spawning places of the fishes concerned to clearly indicate a 
solution. But suggestions have been made from time to time as to 
regulating the size of the fish which may be landed, extending the 
limits the North Sea powers have under their jurisdiction, imposing 
a close time during a part of the spawning season of the more 
important fishes, the establishment of hatcheries and so on. Were 
it a question of recommending the best method of fishing, the simple 
solution would be, to advise the ordinary fishermen to give up the 
old method of fishing with the line which offers so little hope of im- 
provement, and to take up trawling. As an instrument of capture 
there can be no two opinions as to the efficiency of the trawl, and 
especially when it is worked from a steam vessel capable of fishing 
at any season and in all weathers. Or we might recommend the 
fishermen to join together in manning steam liners, a class of boat 
which can compete very successfully with the trawler. It may 
come, now that steam is being more and more used in connection 
with the herring fishing, that our in-shore fishermen will be drawn 
into the more successful, or let us say into the modern methods of 
fishing, and if the younger men became attracted to entering 
trawlers, such a change would be bound to be hastened. But on the 
other hand, we have to remember that steam requires capital, and 
that the fishermen in passing from their own well-known industry 
to that of trawling, become more sailors than fishermen, and lose 
an independence which is one of their most characteristic qualities. 
Indeed it is my belief that fishermen when they leave in-shore fish- 
ing as an industry to take up some other means of making their 
livelihood, do not in many cases become trawl fishermen. This is 
a point, however, upon which some definite information would be 
very useful. It is not likely then, that the change, if it does take 
place, will be a rapid one, and the effects upon the population of 
