May 10, 191 7 
LAND & WATER 
13 
cmp-fvf ' smolts ' wliich jcenl- to the sm\n 1015." But did 
llif-y Kft to the sea ? 
IVfr. CitldprwiKxl, tlie Inspector of Scotch Fisliorics, 
places great value on grilse, and in his report frequently refers 
to the immense falling off of the catches of grilse; one sen- 
tence of his is worthy of a frame in the board room of every 
river Conservancy — " The ratio between grilse and salmon 
has enormously declined from what it used to be. Without 
lambs one cannot expect to have sheep ; without grilse one 
cannot expect to have salmon ; in other words, if we would 
be content to catch fewer grilse the sahnon would take care 
of themselves." Yes, but content is the difficulty. No net- 
ting station is content to catch one pound less of grilse than 
the nets can manage or the law allows. Our rivers are cap- 
able of accommodating, at low estimate, ten times the fish 
now found on the spawning beds. 
Spawning Fish 
An uninterrupted run from sea to spawning grounds 
is the first essential. The protection o'f spawning fish is the 
second, and the third is the protection of the young, from the 
time of hatching to and on tlieir journey to the sea. The re- 
arrangement of coast and tidal water netting, both as to mode 
of working and periods of non-working, is a matter demanding 
review legislative and administrative. A free passage is to 
the benetit of all connected with each river, both nets and 
land owners, in the immense results of better reproduction, 
and is of immense public importance in production of a 
larger food supply offered by nature. 
VVithin the river the official reports, time after time, 
have advocated a readjustment of the times for using nets 
and mode of using, even to the abolition of netting ; a difficult 
subject, I admit. Butjdams or dykes, impassable except in 
high spates, inefficient ladders or- fish-3iasscs, fixed traps, 
even cruive-dykes, exist and are left to bar the way and aid 
the poacher. It really affects all ; but the owners below, 
who get the stock, will do nothing ; the injured upper owners 
are left to do their own poHce work, and to run the risk of heavy 
law expenses; and the coimtry is left with diminished and 
tieclining fish supplies. 
One damaging result of caulds or dams near the river mouth 
or the too close net bar is that the salmon are driven back 
to wait in the sea off the moutli, and in very many rivers 
ihey are slaughtered in hundreds by seals. The Zoological 
Society's ("tirator informs us that an adult seal consumes 
10 lbs. of fish per day, so five seals at work at a river for nine 
months destroy about 13,500 lbs., and how many fish, wounded 
and missed, (lie also ? 
The whole question of free passage to salmon, the very 
foundation of the possible continuance of salmon in our rivers, 
has been and still is struggling in complex law and rarely 
utilised legal decisions. The whole matter of " obstructions," 
antiquated " rights," grants, dykes, cmives and nets, urgently 
requires a clean sweep, and new legislation in the fight of our 
present day scientific knowledge. The existing state of things 
is against public policy ; and on many of our best rivers it is 
slowly but surely " killing the goose "which lavs the golden 
eggs-" 
The separation of the Government Fishery Boards to three 
countries, England, Scotland and Ireland, instead of being one 
authority of joint knowledge, experience, and one law, is 
most regrettable. The admixture of the administration of 
sea-fisheries and freshwater fisheries is bad for both ; each is 
of great national importance ; but they are now blended with 
the Boaril of Agriculture, with a multitude of inland com- 
mercial, technical and legal work, utterly foreign to fishery 
industry. How can the liead of such a complex department 
be expected to control ttie highly technical controversies 
arismg in fishing matters with expert ability. "Fisheries" 
is surely a branch of law and commerce meriting a depart- 
ment of its own, with an official head in Parliament and 
sulvdivisions of sea and fresh water (including of course 
coastal fishings affecting the rivers) the department administer- 
ing minor matters tlirough District Boards of Conservators. 
When the salmon succeeds in running the gauntlet of the 
nets and obstructions he has yet to face many dangers in the 
river, and especially at the time of spawning. The game- 
keeper on land shoots and traps all " vermin," otherwise he 
would liave . neither stock nor young ; the river watcher 
wanders about with a stick ; consequently otters abound, 
they eat iisli, and on salmon and trout rivers such fish are 
practically their main diet. An otter, according to the report 
of the Zoological Curator, requires approximately 5 lbs. of 
fish per day ; he only eats a piece of each large fish, so there is 
enormous wastage if it bo salmon. What he does ui putting 
away salmon parr I know not, but I have seen otters hunting 
the shallows where no salmon could lie, and his abilities with 
trout is well known, and is seen in a case reported recently 
where two otters cleaned out the whole of the trout in tw-o ' 
miles of well stocked club-water in less than a month. 
The cormorant has " come to stay-" Reports from every 
corner of the country affirm the depredations of cormorants. I 
have seen them as far up as Grant own on the Spey, and twenlV 
to tJiirty miles up many other rivers. They are usually ojf 
the river by the time the angler gets to work, hut keepers could 
get them by gun or trap. The cormorant, on the authority al- 
ready quoted, recpiires two lbs. of fish ])er day, roughly estima- 
ted about thirty baby salmon or sixteen " parr " a day each 
bird ; probably some 2,000 young fish eacli bird during April, | 
May and June. 
The gull is a voracious feeder on small fisli. During tlie 
past twenty-five years the gulls have increased in thousands, 
and liave taken to the rivers in a manner never seen in old 
days. The Board of Conservators of the, lilvvy and Clw>'d 
report for 1916, says : " The gulls increase year by year and 
cause great damage to the fishery. During the whole 3'car, 
and especially when the rivers are low, large numbers of 
them may be seen feeding on young fish, and it is noticed 
that tlicy arc most nmneroiis where these are mostly samlets. 
The injury they cau.se is incalculable. . . . The cormo- 
rants at Rhyl end of the river were most destructive." Many 
other river reports are to the same eft'ect. 
It is difficult to estimate the damage done to an}' river ; 
the birds are perpetually on the move and so arc not count- 
able, and many different breeds and sizes are there. I have 
been unable to obtain evidence of the amount of fish a gull 
will eat or requires, but I hava^ seen them hundreds of times 
at work on the shallow ends of the pools and along the banks 
" doing themselves " uncommonly well. liven when they 
are only digging among the stones they, hundreds of them, 
are getting the creeping food which should go to the young 
salmon and trout. And they also foul tlic water badly. 
Divers are often among tliem or in deeper places. What, 
then, is a reasonable estimate of the loss to each river of its 
already decimated supply of new salmon ? It must he 
hundreds of thousands, may be millions, per season ; and 
each samlet might become a salmon and return to produce 
stock. The whole way down the river, from the spawning 
ground, the young salmon drops down after getting over 
the " foy " stage, and with so many enemies the wonder i.s 
that any survive to get to sea. As they become "smolts," 
they are more able to avoid gulls and divers, but not the 
cormorant and the otter. 
Fish-Destroyers 
The main cause of the being and quantity of " fish' 
destroyers " is the existence of the Wild Birds Protection 
Act and Amendment Act, 1880 and 1S94. So for thirty- 
seven years the various water birds have been protected 
froin March ist to August ist, and for twenty-three years 
their eggs have been sacred. This is nothing short of " State 
protection of vermin," useless as food, causing the loss to the 
nation of millions of young salmon per year, the loss of many 
thousands of pninds in money to fishing industries, and large 
rents to riparian f)wners ; and what for ? Sentiment ! They 
are not " rare birds," nor in danger of being exterminated. 
To-day we are " on ratiorts " with food at high price, and 
hens' eggs in many places simply not to be had. It is the 
breeding season of the gulls, and other marine birds. At all 
the shores around the coasts, and especially the .several 
favourite breeding places, are now to be found simply millions 
of eggs ; they are quite good to eat, the fresh-laid ones, and 
I am informed could be retailed at about one-tenth or one- 
twelfth the price of hen's eggs ; they cost nothing to pro- 
duce. But this immense food supply must not he touched. 
The Act imposes a fine of £1 for every egg. There is a 
schedule to the Act, which names the birds that are pro- 
tected, but it is quite worthless, in that the Act further 
gives power to County Councils (probably on the advice of 
the local bird-stutler) to add to or vary the list' of birds, so • 
the particular schedule of the locality must be scrutinised 
to see what " veriliin " is protected. 
The re-stocking of rivers with hatched artificially -reared 
samlets, in the face of the " fish destroyers " and " the present 
law," is to my mind poor business, the expense of hatchery, 
netting, wages, etc., w''ll be a large sum ; surely it would be 
better business for the river interest to spend about one-fifth 
the sum on clearing off the venuin, with perhaps a little 
useful legal persuasion to abate or remove illegal obstructions. 
The actual regeneration of a river, after being cleared 
of obstructions, would be a matter of three to five years, 
but the immediate want, or first remedy, is the removal of 
the Wild Birds Act to abate or remove the slaughter of 
young fish. The next would be a reasonable time of free 
passage to grilse at the summer run to bring their new young 
blood tip the rivers. And then the reorganisation of the 
whole administration. The net owners' market would suffer 
a temporary loss of grilse, but would be repaid ten times 
over for years to come in the immense increase of spawning 
supply and consequent stock. 
