Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/254

 244 FISHERIES Use of ice in packing. Continu ance of 6 &quot;PJy of lisa. markets within reach were so few. All this has been com pletely changed, and the main agent in the work has been the great extension of railways throughout the length and breath of the land. Next to railways as a means of facili tating the transit of fish to all the markets, the use of ice for packing the fish lias become of great importance, so much so in fact that without its employment it would be j m p OSS ibi e to carry on the North Sea trawl fishery during summer at the distance from land at which it is generally worked, and where some of the most productive grounds are situated. Its special importance in this fishery will be further noticed when we speak of the general system of beam-trawling ; but we may here mention that without the use of ice a large proportion of the fish now sent long dis tances by railway would never reach their destination in a condition fit for the table. The idea of using ice in con nexion with the fish trade was first put into a practicable shape by Mr Samuel Hewett. At the present time about 30,000 tons of ice are imported annually from Norway into Hull, which is only one of the large North Sea trawling stations, for the sole purpose of preserving fish, either on board the fishing smacks or during its transit to market. With the exception of herrings, pilchards, and sprats, a large proportion of the fish now caught on the English coast is put into ice almost as soon as taken out of the water. Much of it is at once so packed on board the trawlers ; it is brought on shore sometimes after several days, and sold in the wholesale markets ; it is then re packed in ice and forwarded to other markets, where it is purchased by the fishmongers, who have a stock of ice at home ready to receive it ; and there it remains, if properly taken care of, till wanted, sufficient only to make an attractive display being laid out at one time for sale. The question of how long our present large supply of sea fi s h j s likely to continue is one of much interest, and the answer to it depends on whether or not our fisheries are j i i carried on in such a manner as to cause more destruction of fish life than can be compensated for by the vast repro ductive powers of those fishes which escape the nets and hooks of the fishermen. For more than fifty years past the cry has been periodically raised that our fisheries are being ruined. The general complaint has been of the wasteful destruction of spawn and very young fish by beam-trawling and scan nets; and in 18G3 the outcry was so loud that a lloyal Commission was appointed, not only to examine this question, but also to inquire into the general condition of all our sea fisheries, the special objects of inquiry being the state of the supply of fish, and the questions whether the methods of fishing in use involved a wasteful destruction of fish or spawn, and whether existing fishery restrictions operated injuriously on the fisheries. On these points the commissioners, after taking evidence all round the British Islands, were enabled to give a very decided opinion. They reported that the supply of fish generally had largely increased, that the methods of fishing involved no waste of young fish that could be prevented without interfering with the general fisheries, that spawn was not destroyed by the nets, and that all fishery restrictions should be removed except such as wero desirable for protecting and keeping order among the fishermen. The recommenda tions of the commissioners were embodied in an Act of Parliament known as The Sea Fisheries Act 1868, by which, with one or two small exceptions relating to herring fishing on the west coast of Scotland, previous Fishery Acts were repealed, and fresh regulations made having reference to the registration of fishing boats, keeping order among drift- fishermen and beam-trawlers, and providing a close time for oysters in the English Channel. The main object of the Act was to carry out a convention between the British Islands and France, for the better ordering of the fisheries in the seas adjoining the two countries. The Act came into force in England on the 1st of February 18G9, but cir cumstances have hitherto prevented any date being fixed for carrying out the convention on the part of the French. Great advantage has undoubtedly been gained by British fishermen from the substitution of the present simple fishery regulations for the numerous Acts previously existing, many of which had long been obsolete ; but the lloyal Com mission, which was issued virtually to inquire into the alleged destruction of fish spawn on the ground by beam- trawlers, would probably have never come into existence had the facts then been known which have since come to light about the spawning habits of most of our edible fishes. These facts are so important that a short notice of them may be given here. Fishermen are in the habit of asserting with perfect invest! confidence that fishes of almost every kind they arc accus- gations tomed to catch have certain grounds which they frequent*? at particular seasons for the purpose of depositing their s ,, awu. ova. The herring is known to spawn on the ground, ing. at all events the spawn is found there in irregularly shaped lumps adhering to the bottom. It has therefore been con cluded that all kinds of fishes have the same habits in this respect. Yet no one has been able to speak positively of having ever seen any fish spawn taken from the ground except that of the herring. Various soft and gelatinous substances are brought on shore by the sean nets, and com monly go by the name of spawn among the inshore fisher men : but that they are not fish spawn is perfectly well known to any one who has given attention to the variety of curious animal organisms inhabiting the sea. It was stated by Professors Huxley and Allman in. 1867, before the select committee of the House of Com mons on the Sea Coast Fisheries (Ireland) Bill, as within their personal knowledge, that fish ova had been found floating at the surface of the sea, and that the ova they had met with were in all cases alive, and some of them in an advanced state of development. Reference was at the same time made to the observations then recently recorded by Norwegian naturalists on the spawning habits of the common cod, leading to the belief that spawning at the surface was by no means uncommon with our sea fishes. These investigations have been systematically carried on during the last ten years, under the direction of the Swedish Government, by Professor G. O. Sars of the university of Christian ia, and have resulted in some unexpected dis coveries. The seas in the neighbourhood of the Loffodcu Islands on the coast of Norway had long been known to be a great place of resort for cod during the spawning season ; and in 1864 Professor Sars commenced his work there, and by means of a small surface towing net he obtained plenty of the ova of the common cod (GaJiis morrhua) floating at the surface ; examples in various stages of development were procured, the young fish were success fully hatched out, and the species identified beyond a doubt. Subsequent observations fully confirmed the accuracy of the conclusions previously arrived at that the cod spawn was not deposited on the ground but floated freely at or near the surface. In 1865 the same observa tions were made on the ova of the haddock (Gad-its ceglefinus), and it was satisfactorily proved that they went through all their stages of development while floating at the surface, in precisely the same manner as in the case of the cod. Sars was at first inclined to believe this develop ment of the ova while floating was peculiar to the members of the GadiJce or cod family, in its restricted sense ; but in the summer of 1865 he visited the southern coast of Norway during the season for mackerel, and found abundant evidence of the same rule obtaining in that widely distinct fislu In the case of the mackerel, the spawning actually