Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-07-27

museums and In the regretful memories OF
aged spicures. The North sea is rap.t.y
being hshed out. There are 14o,O0 square
miles of 1t. varying In depth from eight to
one hundred fathoms-an almost untm lsi-
nable volume of water which not long since
was literally teeming with life.
But impossible as the achievement
sounds. the sea Is being exhausted Of its
fish, and In few years II will be as void
or nsh as the Westminster Aquarium. Then,
as happened In the case of that famous
institution, 1t may have to be reorganaed
on new basis. with new objects, purposes
ana methods 1t may even be that Ii Will
nave to be handed over to the care of
Josiah Richie, who in some wonderful
manner will manage to make per cent ont
or IT by sheer showmanship. exhibitions,
with stalls for the sale of marking inks,
glass cutters and india rubber stamps
along the foreshore. swimming displays by
the Beckwith family at Yarmouth, high
diving feats by Miss Luker and shapely
assistants at Scarborough. shooting gal
leries at Grimsby and Hull, twenty -four
hours continuous entertainment on the
Dogger Bank. and. all included III the one
charge OF a shilling. grand electrical llu-
mination OF the water In which The FISH
used to swim.
1t was at Grimsby that I learned the
alarming danger of exhaustion that threlt-
ems the North sea fishing industry.
In matters concerning fishing Grimsby
KNOWS what 1t Is talking about. 1t IS the
greatest fishing port in the worIi. 1t
handles fish In the wholesale, just Man.
1
in fish, CANDLES In fish, just as the stock
exchange does In shares. Its pontoon,
covered wharf by the side of the dock,
where the fish Is landed and marketed, il
more than a quarter OF mile long and
fifty or sixty feet in width: and every day
this great market is choked with the spoil
that the hunting trawiers bring back
As you walk on 1t you paddle in fish
slime, among rushing, excited men splashed
with fish slime. You pick your way with
dfnculty, leaping over huge, cleaning
white halibut, making detours round rows
of giant cod or boxes trimming over with
soles, pIaice and haddocks
A handbelI rings. and dealers and buyers
rush to the auction to compete fu,iousiy
for the latest landed cargo. For +. is al
ways bull market in Grimsby. How
ever much fish is landed, II is less than the
possible consumption. And the public de-
mand is always increasing. while the sup
ply, as far as the North sea proportion OF
it goes, is constantly diminishing So
prices are always rising.
Outside, In the docks, the water is as
crowded with ships as the pontoon is with
fish. Powerful looking steam trawlers lie
nose to nose as closely as they can be
packed against the dock side. These are
the chief cause Of the profusion of fish on
the Grimsby pontoon and it's growing scar
city in the North sea.
Besides steam, ice and rapacity have had
a great deal to do with It. Steam, which
renders 1t Independent of wind, tide and
weather, quadruples the devastation Of q
fishing vessel; ice. which keeps tbs catch
in a marketable condition for weeks II
necessary, enables the steam trawler to re-
Increase it's devastation. Rapacity does The
rest Rapacity, that does not stop TO count
how many fish 1t kills for every salable
fish 1t Is able to bring to market.