which there was a growing demand outrunning the supply. In 1912, as is graphically shown in the diagram, there was a sharp upward turn in the price of all of the cheaper fish and a slight rise in the more expensive kinds, and this tendency was accentuated in 1913. In the latter year, haddock, hake, and plaice were all considerably higher than in any year here recorded, lemon soles were higher than at any time since they have been separately listed, soles and cod were higher than since 1901, and demersal fish as a whole had returned in average price to the level of 1912.

Therefore, while the average prices of the most important species of demersal fishes have been, in general, lower since the otter trawl supplanted previous methods of fishing, they were in 1913, the latest year of which we have record, higher than in 1898, with the single exception of the cod; and in the case of the haddock, hake, and plaice, the increase has been large.

It should be noted, also, that with respect to the cod there has been a decrease in the proportion of the larger and more valuable sizes since 1903, at least, and a corresponding increase in the small ones. In the plaice, the large size has diminished proportionately to both the medium and small. In respect to these species, therefore, the increased marketings of the smaller and cheaper sizes has had a tendency to repress the upward trend of prices, which would have been more marked if the relations of the sizes in earlier years had been maintained.

In regard to the haddock, which is the other most important trawl-caught fish, the situation is peculiar. The statistics show a material increase in the proportion of large fish landed, a slight decrease in the medium size, and a considerable decrease in the proportion of small. As the total catch of the species has decreased, it is believed that the condition shown by the statistics has been brought about by the transfer of fish formerly rated as medium to the category of large, and of small fish to the medium class. That this may be true is indicated further by the fact that while small haddock brought but 28 per cent of the price of large ones in 1906, they brought 75 per cent in 1912 and 80 per cent in 1913. In later years, all three classes have more nearly approached parity in price, presumably because, to some extent, they were more nearly approaching parity in dimensions. It should be mentioned, however, that this evening up of the prices was doubtless due, in some degree, to the education of the public to consume smaller fish. Unfortunately, there have been no fixed or recorded standards of the sizes of fishes, and it is known that the standards vary as between the several ports and at the same port from time to time. In view of all considerations, however, we believe that the average size of all haddock taken has decreased, and that the prices would probably

be higher than they are if the former standard had been maintained.

To summarize, while the otter trawl in England and Wales reduced the cost of production of fish for a number of years after it became the predominant method of fishing, it did this to some extent by reducing the standard of sizes, and within the last two years prices have increased rapidly until they are higher than ever. To what extent the general increase in commodity prices has been responsible can not be determined.

It may be noted that the increase in the price of fish in 1912 and 1913 occurred in the face of the heaviest fisheries that Great Britain has ever known, in which, however, the species taken in the trawl fishery did not participate.

INSUFFICIENCY OF DATA.

While certain provisional deductions are drawn from the preceding analysis, the data are not regarded as sufficient to warrant an opinion respecting the effects of steam trawling on the fisheries. The period during which the American trawlers have operated has been too short, the trawlers engaged have been too few, and their catch, relatively to the catch by liners fishing on the same banks, has been too small to make it probable that they could have shown any drastic effect. Such fluctuations as have occurred during the time may have been merely the periodical changes common to all fisheries. For this reason it has been necessary to consider what is known of the fisery in the North Sea, the region in which it has reached its greatest development, and where it has been prosecuted for the longest time. The only data for a sufficiently long period. available to the committee considering the subject are those contained in the Annual Reports on Sea Fisheries of England and Wales and the Annual Reports of the Fishery Board for Scotland. These two countries have four-fifths of the North Sea trawlers, catch over two-thirds of all fishes taken in the North Sea and over three-fourths of all demersal fishes landed from that region, and, therefore, if an analysis of the statistics develops any pronounced facts, they can be assumed, with some safety, to be applicable to the North Sea fisheries as a whole.

The statistical publications of The Permanent International Council for the Exploration of the Sea contain interesting detailed information respecting other countries in recent years, but as this can not well be correlated with the data from earlier periods it has not been used. Unfortunately, the same difficulty has been encountered in a measure in dealing with the English and Scotch statistics. The forms of the tables, the character of the data which they contain, the classification of the fishes, and the detail and particularity of the data have been changed from time to time. This has not only

entailed great labor in an effort to arrive at the facts, but has necessitated some lack of uniformity in the consideration of the several periods, and has also, taken in connection with modifications in the methods of the fishery, dictated the selection of the particular periods considered. If the data for the entire series of years had been presented in the form adopted since about 1906, many difficulties would have been removed, and the matter presented in this report would have been more explicit in some respects. While this report appears to consider and compare certain years only, largely for the reasons just explained, all English and Scotch reports since 1891 have been laboriously examined, and it is not believed that if other years were substituted there would be any material change in the apparent trend of the analysis.

MINOR AMERICAN TRAWLNET FISHERIES.

In considering the matter of the regulation of the otter-trawl fishery on the oceanic banks adjacent to the coast of New England, which is the prime purpose of this report, it is necessary to keep in view two minor fisheries prosecuted by the otter trawl or its equivalent concerning which there appears to be little or no complaint.

CAPE COD FLOUNDER FISHERY.

The first of these is the flounder fishery on the shores of Cape Cod. The fishery was established about 1895 or 1896, and 27 trawl nets were in use in 1898. In 1902 the number had increased to 65, and in 1908, the latest year for which we have information, there were 126; it is understood that the number has increased since then.

The vessels in the Cape Cod otter-trawl fleet, which is owned principally in Provincetown, Hyannis, and Falmouth, is composed of craft ranging from motor dories to auxiliary motor vessels of 25 to 30 tons. Beam trawls were formerly employed, but they have been practically supplanted by otter trawls measuring from 30 to 50 feet between the boards. The fishery is conducted in depths of 10 fathoms, more or less, and as it is confined to Cape Cod Bay and Nantucket Sound, it is within territorial waters and, therefore, within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. Few fishes other than flounders are taken, the principal species being the winter flounder, locally known as the "black back," and the rusty dab, known to the fishermen by the name of "fluke" and "yellow tail." The present catch of these trawls is not known, but in 1898 they took 766,850 pounds, valued at $8,564; in 1902, 1,419,809 pounds, valued at $43,169; and in 1908, 2,893,000 pounds, yielding the fishermen $64,000. At Hyannis and Falmouth the trawl fishery is of very recent development. Previous to 1908, from 6 to 12 small boats employing hand lines made an aggregate annual catch of 200 to 300 barrels. With the

introduction of beam trawls, more than 125 men have gone into the business in Hyannis and Falmouth, and in the season of 1910 and 1911 they caught and marketed 11,500 barrels (over 2,575,000 pounds) of winter flounder, receiving therefor the sum of $57,500. As comparatively few of these fishes are taken by other methods, the otter trawl in this case has added to the food supply a fishery product not otherwise largely available.

SAN FRANCISCO PARANZELLA FISHERY.

This fishery was introduced from the Mediterranean many years ago and is prosecuted by Italian fishermen employed principally, if not entirely, by two San Francisco companies. In 1908 there were 20 of these nets in use at this port. The paranzella is essentially similar to an otter trawl, but the wings are kept extended not by otter boards but by warps or lines carried to tugs. Two vessels steering on parallel courses are required to operate a net. The tugs are about 85 feet long and of 30 tons net register, with an engine of about 150 horsepower and a crew of 11 men.

In 1908 the paranzella nets caught 4,722,000 pounds of fish valued at $87,000, of which 3,629,000 pounds valued at $68,000 were flounders and soles. No large numbers of fishes important to the line fisheries are taken. The fishing ground is a strip about 50 miles long and 5 miles wide lying about 12 miles seaward from the Golden Gate. There is practically no other fishing on this ground, and, therefore, the paranzella nets do not interfere with other methods of fishing. About 15 per cent of the fish brought up in the net are immature. The fishery is conducted beyond the limits of territorial jurisdiction.

DEMERSAL FISHERIES OF ENGLAND AND WALES.

INTRODUCTION.

In the preparation of this report every effort has been made to trace the history of the demersal fisheries of England and Wales, and especially of the North Sea, continuously from 1891 to the latest date for which data are available, but after careful consideration it has been found necessary to break the continuity of the discussion, because there appears no basis for harmonizing the possible analyses of the statistics prior to 1901 with those which can be made after 1903. In other words, one basis of comparison is possible between the several years of the earlier period and another between those of the later series, but none whatever can be made between 1901 and 1903, when there was an abrupt change in the manner in which the data were presented.

• Report of the Commissioner of Fisheries, 1911, p. 50.

From 1891 to 1901 there are no data relating to the North Sea specifically, but there is material for the consideration of the fishery out of certain east coast ports from which the operations in the North Sea were so overwhelmingly predominant to those carried on in other regions from the same ports that no violence is done to the validity of the discussion by considering that the fishery was conducted in the North Sea alone. These ports were North Shields, Sunderland, Hartlepool, Scarborough, Yarmouth, Lowestoft, and Ramsgate. Grimsby, Hull, and Boston were concerned largely or predominantly in the fisheries in other regions than the North Sea, which would introduce an important error, and they are therefore eliminated from consideration. Furthermore, during the period from 1891 to 1901, while the whole number of vessels is stated in the reports, there is no specific designation of the numbers of the respective classes and types and the catch of each, and as the ratios of these to one another undoubtedly varied from year to year, and as the efficiencies of the different sorts and sizes of vessels and the kinds of fishes which they catch diverge widely no adequate measure of the intensity of the fisheries can be applied.

From 1903 onward the data presented in the reports are much more specific, the catch from the North Sea is definitely given, as are also the number of landings of the different sorts of vessels, the catch of each, and, especially in the later years, the definite character of that catch.

With the reservations and limitations imposed by the conditions thus summarized, it is possible, however, to make some use of the entire series of matter presented in the Annual Reports on Sea Fisheries of England and Wales. If, for instance, a certain tendency should be shown by a comparison of the several years of the earlier period inter se, and the same tendency should be shown by the different sort of analysis required by the character of the data available for the second period, the two presumably would be mutually corroborative. It must be understood definitely and finally, however, that the specific data for one period must not be compared with those for the other.

FISHING REGIONS.

The fishing vessels of England and Wales fish in the following regions, which are specifically designated in the reports for recent years: White Sea, Iceland, Faroe, Rockall, North of Scotland, North Sea, English Channel, Irish Sea, Bristol Channel, Westward of Scotland, West of Ireland, Southward of Ireland, Biscay, and Portugal and Morocco. All of these regions are resorted to by English steam trawlers, in some cases to the total or practical exclusion of other methods of fishing.