Fisheries

FISHERIES. This term as commonly employed embraces every method of pursuit and capture, whether for profit or for sport, of aquatic animals, from whales and seals, which are warm-blooded mammals, to the "tiddlers" prized by urchins. However, neither whaling nor sealing comes within the scope of this article, which is limited to the pursuit of fish properly so called and is primarily concerned with commercial fisheries for fish for food. Fishing is probably the earliest form of hunting, and, as men were surely hunters before they were cultivators, is actually the oldest industry in the world.

For the most part, the attitude of man towards fisheries has been that of the spendthrift : Nature gave the increase; he had but to use it if he could. The abundance of fishes in their differ ent species varied from year to year, but there was always abundance and it is only in comparatively recent years that serious apprehensions have been entertained lest the operations of man might jeopardize the stability of the stock. The contrary view still finds vigorous expression in some quarters in spite of the rapid growth both of the volume of fishing and of the efficiency and destructiveness of fishing gears.

Most fishes are enormously prolific. A female turbot will produce in one spawning season more than 8,000,000 eggs, a cod 4,500,000, a plaice 300,000, a herring 31,000. The eggs produced by individuals of most of the species of chief importance are numbered at least in hundreds of thousands ; but at all stages of their life the fishes are beset by a host of enemies, among whom it is probable that man has been, until recently, the least destructive.

With the growth of the population of the world and the increas ing demand upon available resources of food, it has begun to be recognized that man has hitherto failed to take full advantage of the enormous resources of the sea. Approximately three-quarters of the earth's surface is covered by water; but the great fishing grounds of the world are determined primarily by the depth of water upon them, and are almost entirely within the limit of a depth of 200 fathoms, and chiefly within zoo fathoms. It is improbable that any great abundance of fish is to be found far beyond these limits, and in any case the difficulty and the cost of fishing operations by the methods hitherto in use increase in proportion to the depth of water on the fishing grounds. It is thus on what may be described as the shelves of the continents or the banks of the oceans that the deep sea fisheries, the chief commercial fisheries of the world, are prosecuted.

Historically speaking, there has been no parallel to the develop ment of the fisheries of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, and more particularly of European waters. Nor must we forget when we speak of the great industrial developments of fisheries in Europe in the past 6o years, and particularly of the ubiquitous steam trawlers of Great Britain, that in the days of the Tudors English fishermen were fishing not only in the North sea and other home waters, but at Iceland, as far east of the North Cape as Vardo, and even off Newfoundland. Throughout the Middle Ages salt fish played a recognised part in the economy of Euro pean nations; it was the Lenten fare of Catholic Europe, a regu lar part of the rations of armies in the field, and the complement of salt meat in the winter food of northern Europe.

In Great Britain today the consumption of fish per head of the population is about 4o lb. annually, and the total consump tion of fish is something more than one-third of the total consump tion of meat. Fish is also the raw material of various industries; fish-canning, fish-salting, herring-pickling, the manufacture (from the offal of fish) of fish meal, which is a useful feeding stuff for poultry, pigs and cattle, and of fish-manure ; and the production of oil of various grades from medicinal cod-liver oil to cruder oils used for such purposes as tanning, soap-making and temper ing steel. Glue and isinglass are also among the by-products of fisheries, and attention is now being directed to the conversion of fish-skins into fine leather.

Again, fishing by modern methods provides employment on a large scale in connection with ship-yards, ice-factories, net factories, motor works, etc. The fishing industry of Great Britain uses at least 3,000,000 tons of coal a year. The daily transport of fish is an important factor in the activities of some of the prin cipal railway companies. The distribution of fish from the whole sale markets to the retail shops and to the fried fish shops—which handle something like 4o per cent of the total quantity of fish consumed—provides employment for many hands. If account be taken of the many trades and occupations which are in some sort ancillary to or activated, in whole or in part, by the fishing industry, it will be seen that, although the number of fishermen is comparatively small (about 6o,000 in Great Britain) the failure of the industry would cause widespread repercussions in the labour market. In every country with a fishing population this would be a calamity; in some, such as Norway and Newfoundland whose leading industry is fishing, it would be a disaster.

But the influence of the fishing industry goes further and deeper than this. It is not generally recognised how great a part fisheries have played in the destinies of nations. A history of fisheries and even of the fisheries of any one country has yet to be written. When the first man ventured to sea in a dug-out, it is probable that his purpose was the better to pursue fish, and not only the deep sea trawlers, liners and drifters of to-day, but the merchant and fighting navies are the lineal descendants of the pre-historic fisherman in his dug-out. Thus fishing may be pre sumed to have prepared the way for sea trade, without which modern civilisation is inconceivable. The growth of the all powerful Hanseatic League from the small beginnings of the herring fisheries of Scania, and the rise of the sea-power of the Dutch in the 17th century, following upon their predominance in the fisheries of the North sea, are comparatively modern instances of the influence of fishing on shipping. "It is the fish taken upon his majesty's coasts," wrote Sir William Monson, admiral of the Narrow Seas, in the reign of James I., "that is the only cause of the increase of shipping in Europe ; and he that hath the trade of fishing becomes mightier than all the world besides in the number of ships." The Tudors in England feared a loss of sea power from the decline of the fisheries which followed the Reformation, and by various measures, including the so-called "political Lent," sought to give a new impetus to the fisheries. The Stuarts with the same object in view sought to assert a British dominion over the North Sea, and it was with the temporary decline of her fish ing fleet that in the subsequent struggle with the Dutch, Great Britain encountered perhaps her greatest humiliation at sea. Moreover, throughout the history of Great Britain, the fisheries have not merely been a "nursery" for the mercantile marine and the royal navy but have directly contributed their quota to the fighting forces at sea, and when in the recent World War the fishermen with their ships played a prominent part in combating the menace of mine and submarine, history was repeating itself, as it had from age to age with variations, from the days when the fishermen of the Cinque Ports acquired their privileges in return for naval service.

Fishing Methods and Gears.

The methods of catching swimming fish in use in Great Britain alone are very numerous, and, if one extends one's survey to the whole world, almost innumerable, but all of them are variations of a few radical methods. One, perhaps the earliest, is that of direct attack by means of a spear and is still in use in some parts of the world. The next is a trap devised to intercept and capture roving fish. The various forms of fish-weirs still found here and there on the coasts of Great Britain, which work on the principle of admit- , ting fish on the flood tide and trapping them on the ebb, are probably of primitive origin. From the fish-weir or dam of stone or clay to a similar trap of wattle hedging and thence to fixed nets is a natural logical evolution. Another form of trap is that into which fish are attracted by food, examples of which, probably of primitive origin, are the wickerwork traps used for catching lobsters, prawns and crabs. The baited line was prob ably first used without a hook, as it is even now in the method of catching eels known as "clotting" or "bobbing," that is tying a bunch of worms at the end of a line, and, when it has been taken by the eel, drawing it swiftly to hand before the eel has had time to disengage its teeth. This method was improved upon by the introduction of a hook, the earliest form of which may have been the thorn hooks still used in parts of Wales and the Thames estuary. From these methods the more elaborate devices em ployed in commercial fishing to-day have been evolved, the most important development being the device of bringing the trap, in the form of a net, to the fish, instead of trusting to the natural movements of the fish or the lure of bait to bring the fish to a stationary trap.

In the fisheries of the North Atlantic, which are the most highly developed and commercially organised in the world, the methods of fishing of chief importance are trawling, seining, drifting and lining. The first two methods involve the use of a net which is brought to the fish, in the case of the trawl, by dragging on, or near, the bottom of the sea, a bag-shaped net the mouth of which is kept open either by a beam across the head or by the pressure of the water upon wooden kites known as trawl boards attached to the net and, in the case of the seine, by gradually encircling the fish with a net in the centre of which is a bag not unlike that at the end---known as the "cod-end"—of the trawl. The beam trawl is used only on sailing smacks and other small fishing craft; the trawl which depends for its spread on kites is known as the otter trawl and is universally employed on steam trawlers. It is, having regard to all possible circumstances, by far the most efficient instrument for taking "demersal" (i.e. bottom-feeding) fish yet devised. One of the most efficient forms of seine net is the instrument chiefly used by the Danish fishermen and adopted to some extent in recent years by the British fishing industry.

The principle of the drift net differs from that of the trawl and of the seine in that it is not actively approached to the fish. On the other hand, it differs from the stationary trap and the many forms of stationary net in that it is attached either to a floating buoy or to a drifting ship (hence the name) and moves with the buoy or ship under the influence of wind and tide. It is lightly and strongly made of cotton and is the instrument principally used in the great herring fisheries. Each herring net measures from 50-60 yards long and about 14 yards deep, but the nets are used in "fleets," as many as 85 or more of them being employed at one time from one vessel so as to form an extended wall of netting hanging perpendicularly in the water. The net is generally fished about 3 yards below the surface of the water, being kept at the right level by a series of buoys or "pellets" connected with the head-line by strops. This net is devised to intercept sizeable fish which in the attempt to pass it are caught by the gills. Drift nets of various dimensions are used for catching "pelagic" fish, that is to say, fish that swim in the upper layers of the water, chiefly herring, mackerel, pilchards and sprats. Drift nets of larger mesh are also used for catching salmon.

Fishing by means of lines with baited hooks was formerly of much greater commercial importance than it is to-day. There are two methods of lining, hand-lining and long-lining. In the former method the line is drawn by hand as soon as the fish is felt; in the latter, the line is shot and left unattended till it is time to haul. Hand-lines are not, generally speaking, of great commercial impor tance. A long line is fitted with a great number of hooks attached to the main line by thin strong lines of materials which vary ac cording to the character of the fish and to local custom. Long lines may be set at low water on the sands, but more often they are worked from fishing vessels in deep water. All the deep water lines are anchored and buoyed at each end, the longer ones also anchored and buoyed at intervals along the whole length. On a large steam liner the number of hooks on one line may be any thing from 1,000 to 5,500. Deep-sea long lines are chiefly used for cod and halibut. The baits vary according to local conditions, and include mussels, whelks, squid and herrings.

World Fisheries.

The pursuit of fish is, in greater or less degree, world-wide. No estimate of the output of the fisheries of the world can be wholly reliable, or indeed, more than an approxi mation, because in many parts of the world where fishing is ac tively carried on no statistics are compiled. Again, the countries which do publish statistics do not compile them on a uniform plan, and it is generally difficult to derive from them comparable figures. Most of the countries of Europe, however, the United States of America, the British dominions and Japan publish annual statis tics of some sort or another, and a comprehensive statistical ac count of the greater part of the Fisheries of Europe will be found in the Bulletin Statistique des Peches Maritimes of the Interna tional Council for the Exploration of the Sea.

A further difficulty arises from the fact that, although, in many parts of the world, the inland fisheries are of great economic im portance, statistics of their yield are usually lacking. Here, how ever, attention will be concentrated chiefly on the sea fisheries which are the most highly developed and organized, particularly in the northern hemisphere. The available statistics, excluding as far as possible the products of inland fisheries and those prod ucts of the sea outside the category of food-fishes, e.g., seals, whales, corals, sponges, etc., show an output of food-fish to the value of more than £1o9,000,000 sterling per annum. This figure does not include the fisheries of—in Europe—Italy, Russia, Greece and Turkey; with the exception of Japan it omits practi cally the whole of the Orient ; nor does it include South and Central America, the West Indies, the greater part of Africa and the islands of the south Pacific and south Atlantic.

In Europe, Great Britain easily leads the way in sea fisheries, with an output (1925) valued at over £20,250,000. France comes next with, in round figures, L7,000,000 worth; Norway next with £4,85o,000 worth; then Spain with £4,000,000 worth. On the American continent the value of the catch of the U.S.A. is over £19,000,000, that of Canada over £5,000,000, that of Newfound land, with Labrador, over £2,000,000. The only other British do minion with landings worth more than one million pounds is the commonwealth of Australia, with L1,200,000 worth. The most startling outcome of a study of all the statistics available is that in respect of the value of its landings of sea fish Japan is the fore most fishing country of the world, with landings valued at more than £30,600,000.

Fish is a very important, indeed a necessary item in the diet of rice-eating populations. If one considers of how great a part of the population of the Far East rice is the staple food, one can ap preciate the importance of the part played by fisheries in the economy of the eastern nations. In Japan sea fisheries predom inate; but in British India, although in certain provinces, notably on the west coast of Madras, serious and not unsuccessful at tempts have been made to develop the sea fisheries, the economic importance of the inland fisheries is probably greater. In Malaya and in Ceylon the sea fisheries are actively exploited. In many parts of Africa fish is great sought after by the native popula tion. Indeed, if one could procure an account of the total catch of fish—both sea fish and freshwater fish—throughout the world, the value would certainly reach a startling figure. In Tressler's Marine Products of Commerce the annual value of fish and fishery products is placed approximately at $800,000,000, say f i 6o,000, 000. This is probably too conservative an estimate.

Shellfish.

The term "shellfish" embraces the edible species of both crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, crawfish, prawns and shrimps) and molluscs (oysters, mussels, cockles, escallops, clams, whelks, etc.). Their economic importance varies from country to country, but is nowhere comparable with that of the fisheries for what are commonly known as "wet fish." For in stance, in Great Britain the total value of all shellfish (1926) was £J99,817, but in the United States of America the annual first value of the crop of oysters is about £2,500,000, the value of the output in 1922 of canned oysters was about £480,000, and that of shell-grit, a by-product of the oyster fisheries, of which great quantities are exported to Great Britain and elsewhere for feeding to laying hens, about £400,000 (see OYSTER) . Lobsters are an important article of commerce in Canada, whence Great Britain alone imports canned lobsters to the value of about £400,000 per annum. Japan has a considerable and developing trade in canned crab meat and South Africa in canned crawfish.

The yearly value of the lobster fisheries of Great Britain is £1I5,000 and of the crab fisheries £96,000; and it is interesting to observe that the shrimp fisheries reach an annual value of between £80,000 and £90,000. The most prolific of the fisheries for molluscs are the cockle and mussel fisheries, in that order. The potential output of the mussel fisheries of Great Britain is practically unlimited ; but many of the most prolific beds have been closed owing to sewage pollution. Mussels, though them selves immune, are capable of transmitting typhoid and other intestinal diseases, whence arises the necessity for closing mussel fisheries in heavily polluted areas. Methods have recently been elaborated in Great Britain by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries by which polluted mussels can be effectively and eco nomically cleansed. The chief importance of the shellfish fisheries of Great Britain lies in the fact that they contribute to the liveli hood of the declining population of inshore fishermen.