F 1 S II E 11 I E S Shrimp; an>1
Oyster fisheries, MINOII I lUTiSii FjsiiKRIE3. Cr.ij and Lobster Fisheries. -The dctuui 1 for these crustaceans has increased so iiiucli within the lut few years that the supply from the coasts of Britain has been insufficient, and from 400,000 to 600,000 lobsters have for .some little time been annually imported from Norway. They travel without much loss in vessels fitted with vells ; and for journeys lusting no longer than tsvo or three days they will live very well if packe.l with wet seaweed in boxes. The places from which the principal homo supplies arc sent to the large markets being now mostly within easy reach of railways, there i.> little occasion to use welled vessels for collecting them. 1 The English markets are mainly supplied from Cornwall an 1 the south coast of England, from the Orkneys and Hebrides in Scotland, and from the west coast of Ireland. Besides these about 200,000 come from France, the fishery for them being in the neighbourhood of Cherbourg, and a few from Sweden. The means adopted for catching lobsters and crabs in the British Islands are cither circular basket- work " pals " with a mouse-trap entrance at the top, or cages covered with netting an.l with one or two entrances as in the pots. These cages are commonly called " creels." Cribs are taken in most abundance in the west and south of Englan.l, and more or less generally on the cast coast, and iu Scotland and Ireland, those from parts of Dev.on and Cornwall being the finest which are sent to market. There is a general disposition on the part of the fishermen to submit to some law limiting the size of both crabs and lobsters to be offered for sah;, so as to put a stop to the falling off in these fisheries, which is apparent on some parts of the co.ist. A close time is objected to, as no month in the year is generally suitable, and "berried" lobsters are so valuable for the market that if they had to be returned to the sea the fishermen would lose a great part of their present profits. A limit to the size allowed to bo sold seems therefore to be the best means of protecting these fisheries ; and such a law is now enforced on the oast of Norfolk. Shrimp an I Praivn Fisheries. The most important of these fisheries are carried on in the estuary of the Thames, Pegivell Bay near Ramsgate, and Morecambo Bay on the Lancashire coast, but they 7 are more or less general wherever suitable ground is met with. Leigh is the headquarters of the Thames shrimpers. They fish with a net mounted very much like a beam-trawl, but having a long, straight piece <>! wood at the lower part of the mouth to work over the ground instead of the ordinary ground-rope. This is in i act like the common form of hand-shrimping net, but so fitted as to bo towed instead of pushed. Ordinary trawls are used for prawns cr "red shrimps," and in some other places for true shrimps. The supply of shrimps from Leigh sometimes amounts to 2000 gallons in a clay. Shellfish: Oysters, Mussels, Whelks, PeriuinUes. The oyster fisheries of the British Islands have been in a failing condition for some few years past, owing to a deficiency of spat, the cause of which has been the subject of active controversy, not only between rival theorists, but also among practical fishermen. Over-fishing has been regarded by many as the main cause of the decrease, and it may pos sibly have helped to make matters worse than they would otherwise have been ; but it is difficult to explain in this manner the fact that, in England, Scotland, and Ireland, there has been a general failure of spat for some years past, on all kinds of ground and under every condition, in public and private bed , and whether they have been carefully protected, as in the case of old established private com panies, or left to the working of the general public, except 1 J f;>ort of Commission on Crab and Lvtslcr Fisheries, p. ii. (1877). during a definib close time, more or less enforced. Li Ireland, where there are regulations for close time, and restrictions as to the size of oysters allowed to be sold, an.l where in some cases all fishing has been stopped for two or three years, the decrease of oys ers lias been as decided as in England or Scotland ; a;id Mr Blake, until recently one of the inspectors of Irish fisheries, and chair man of the oyster commission in 18G8, stated in his evidence given before the select committee of the House of Com mons in 1876 that the decline in the oyster fisheries was clue to the bad spatting seasons, and to the great increase of dredging ; " but if the spatting went on as it formerly did, the amount of dredging would nut be of much import ance." The bulk of English supplies is obtained from the oyster beds of private companies, of which tho Whit-table company is the most ancient, having worked from time immemorial on their present ground on the south shore of the entrance to the Thames. In 1793 they purchased from the lord of tho manor the exclusive right of fishing there. The company is a corporation of fishermen governed by elected member;} of their own body. The rncu are paid for the daily r work done by them, and each member of the company also receives his share of the profits on the sale of the oysters. A great part of their employment, besides dredging and keeping their own ground clean and free from vermin, con sists in dredging for spat in the public portion of the river for the purpose of laying it down on their own beds. A general failure of spat, such as tLerc has been in recent years, is therefore not only fclfc by them on their own limited ground, l/ut they suffer from the scarcity in what may be called their reserves. The Whitstable company is, however, only one among many which occupy the shores of the Thames estuary and the small rivers which How into it. The oysters thus laid -down or bred in these situations become remarkable for the thinness of their shells, and the good flavour and comparatively large size of their contents, and are what are known as " natives." There arc numerous companies or individual proprietors engaged in cultivating oysters on various parts of the coasts, but at the present time they are, we believe, all more or less suffering from deficiency of spat. Channel or deep-sea oysters arc generally large and coarse, and do not fetch more than ore tenth of the price given for the more delicate "natives." Attempts at the artificial cultivation of oysters have not met with much success. Mussels and u hdlca, while in some request for food Mussels among the lower classes, are in especial demand for and the purposes of fish-bait, and the value of mussels in w " eI1 - 3< this respect has recently led to a more careful protec tion of the older banks, and sonic attempts at the cultiva tion of new ones. Whelks are particularly valuable in the North Sea cod fishery, and a number of vessels from Grimsby are regularly engaged in fishing for them. Their mode of catching them is by means of shallow hoop-nets baited with refuse fish, and sunk to the bottom on suitable ground ; in these the whelks collect in large numbers, and are caught without any difficulty. A considerable supply is also obtained from the oyster dredgers; and at the mouth of the Thames they are caught largely by using " trots " or bulters long-lines of small dimensions; but instead of having baited hooks, they have common small shore-crabs threaded on the snoods, about twenty on each ; these are seized by the whelks and so firmly held whilst being devoured that the line may easily be hauled in without disturbing the numbers found on every snood. Peri- Peri- winMes are all procured between tide marks, and are of wiakk-s. course collected by hand. The London market is mainly supplied from the western islands of Scotland, the Orkneys, the Shetland*, and parts of the Irish coast. IX. - 34
