The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-07-10

tation of fishing vessel; ice. which
 keeps the catch in a marketable con- d1tion for weeks if necessary, enables the steam traWler to remain much longer at sea, and so further to increase it's devastation. Rapacity does the
 rest Rapacity, that does not stop to
 count how many fish it kills for every salable fish it is able to bring to mar
 ket.
 It is, says Alderman Harrison Mudd,
 the estimabe Mayor of Grimsby, the
 wanton destruction of young and inn North Sea. There is certain market
 for young and immature fish, such as
 plaice. They are bought by the poor
 classes in large towns. and also in large
 quantities by the fried fish shop peo-
 pie. It is not a very profitable market
 this, and by itself it would scarcely be
 worth considering. But the immature fish are only by product, so to
 speak. The reason why they are caught is that wherever they are found, and the fishermen know to an
 inch where to look for them, there are
 also to be found a few mature and highly valuable soles.
 Now, of all the good things that are
 to be desired in life, the sole, from the
 point of view of Grimsby, is the most desirable Of all the fish that swim he
 is the most marketable. No imaginable
 supply can depreciate his market val
 ue There never was in history glut 1 of soles on the market. For soles the l English appetite is unsuitable. Turbot, | halibut, plaice, haddock herring
 especially herring-depend for their profitable catchings on the market con-
 ditions current at the time they are
 landed But not the sole. He invari- ably fetches more than he is worth, i largely because of his accommodating disposition in growing to a size that is convenient either for family or hotel and restaurant consumption. The tlsh- erman knows that if he can only get back to Grimsby with few boxes or soles he can be sure of having made profitable voyage.
 1 Grimsby has it's grudge, too, against science. There were years ago com missions and inquiries with regard to the everlasting and immature fish ques- ! tion, and with regard to the necessity or advantage of imposing a close time or other preservative regulation upon the fishing industry, But science took hand, and proved conclusively-trom books, of course--that there was no such thing as everlasting, and that the reproductive powers of fish were mar vellous; that if it would not for bene- ficent laws of nature there would not be room left in the sea for the water
 Fifteen or twenty years ago sail ing smack used to be able to go over to the Dutch coast and come back with sixty to seventy boxes of soles each box weighing about one hundred and twenty pounds Nowadays a steam trawler has had what is regarded as big voyage if 1t comes back with eight or ten boxes from the same ground. Thirty years ago a smack could go out from Grimsby and get cargo of fish in single night on the trawling grounds within sight of Sprun Head; nowadays that ground is as clear of fish as if it had been swept with bosom. Sixteen years ago the Grimsby Ice companys fleet of a hundred sailing smacks used frequently to capture three thousand boxes of fish; nowadays, with the same catching power, six hundred or seven hundred boxes would be an achieve ment Seventeen years ago there were in Grimsby over one thousand sail of fishing boats, all making catches which at present prices would yield splendid profits They have all disappeared, un- able to exist on their diminished catch es. notwit hstanding that prices have advanced more than 100 per cent In place of them there are six hundred steam trawlers, each one equal in re- spect of trawl energy to at least four sailing smacks.
 And. although, owing to steam and ice. these steam trawlers go so far afield to the newer grounds about Ice land, their catch Is not so large as that of the old time smacks, for the simple reason that in the North Sea the fish are not there to be caught.
 There must, Alderman Mudd says, be a close time for fish in the breeding season and protection for the breeding grounds if the North Sea fish are to be 1 wholly exterminated.
 At present Grimsby manages to get | along on the not inconsiderable prof its of handling and marketing the fish after the fishermen have done with | them. What lack there is of North Sea | fish 1t makes up for with Iceland fish, | some of which has been kept so long on 1 ice as to taste more of the ice than the | fish, And of course the public have | to make up the difference by paying | higher prices. Plaice in the old abund- | ant days used to sell at 3s. to 4s box; l now they are thought cheap at 3Os,, and have been known to fetch as much as | f4, Soles used to average Sd. pound; | now they run from Is. 3d, to Is, 3d. Kit | haddock, which used to sell at from IS, to ss. now command 2Ss. So by selling | ice deteriorated fish at these huge prices the pontoon manages to keep afoat But thoughtful men like the Mayor, who look to the future, wonder where the fish are coming from when the arctic waters are in their turn fish ed out--From the London Express.