asked, What restrictions, if any, should be imposed upon the use of the beam-trawl?
Now it would of course be absurd to think of abolishing altogether an industry which, even in 1868, was described as the source of by far the greatest and most progressive supply of fish, other than herring, to the principal markets of this country; as the only mode of fishing by which certain descriptions of fish, such as soles and plaice, could be largely supplied; and as engaging the largest capital, and employing the most numerous body of hardy fishermen; as least under the control of the weather, and as obtaining the greatest returns of fish for the labour and capital employed.
Nor do the Commissioners make any such sweeping recommendations. The present fishery authorities of the United Kingdom are, – in Ireland, a Fishery Board, endowed by Act of Parliament with power to regulate methods of fishing, and to make by-laws for its protection; in Scotland, a Fishery Board, with many duties but no powers; and in England, an inspector of salmon-fisheries. The Commissioners suggest that a fishery authority should be created for England, and that this body and the Scotch Board should possess powers similar to those now held by the Irish Board; that statutory powers should be conferred on all those Boards for the collection of statistics, and an annual sum allowed them for scientific experiments.
If these suggestions be adopted by the Legislature, they ought to put an end to the trawling question for good and all. Proper statistics of the number of fish caught in particular seasons, the number of boats employed, the nature and efficiency of the apparatus, and the time spent in fishing, would enable comparisons to be made between the takes of various seasons, showing whether any alleged decrease in the fish-supply was real or imaginary, as well as the rate and degree of such decrease. Regular scientific observation directed towards the habits of food-fishes, their times and places of spawning, the history of their ova, the growth of their fry, and the influence upon their movements of changes of temperature, of the saltness or specific gravity of the water, and of the state of the weather, would go far towards elucidating the number of causes affecting their distribution in our seas. Finally, a temporary suspension of one or several modes of fishing would, combined with the knowledge obtained as above mentioned, give some data for estimating the influence of the various methods of catching fish upon the supply of any particular region. With all these means of arriving at a just decision, the Fishery Boards would be able to act with an authority that our present imperfect knowledge renders impossible. If these bodies came to the conclusion that any one mode of fishing – trawling, for instance – was doing permanent damage to any particular ground, they could suspend it at discretion, or prescribe a close-time when they thought such a remedy would be sufficient.
It is, however, to be feared, though the trawling controversy may be set at rest, that the fishermen themselves will not benefit much, whatever may be the legislation of the future on this vexed question. The fishery authorities cannot well stop trawling on the plea of "exhaustion," and permit, say, twenty boats to fish for haddock upon the same bank with lines, each of which has 13,440 hooks.
Indeed, the more we look the matter in the face, the more does
