In 1882 the former Board of British White Herring was dissolved and the Fishery Board for Scotland instituted, the latter being empowered to take such measures for the improvement of the fisheries as the funds under their administration might admit of. Arrangements were made in the following year with Professor M’Intosh of St Andrews which enabled the latter to fit up a small marine laboratory and to begin a series of studies on the eggs and larvae of sea fishes, which have contributed greatly to the development of more exact knowledge concerning the reproduction of fishes. Under the Sea Fisheries (Scotland) Amendment Act of 1885 the board closed the Firth of Forth and St Andrews Bay against trawlers as an experiment for the purpose of ascertaining the result of such prohibition on the supply of fish on the grounds so protected. The treasury also, by a further grant of £3000, enabled the board to purchase the steam-yacht “Garland” as a means of carrying out regular experimental trawlings over the protected grounds. Reports on the results of these experiments have been annually published, and were summarized at the end of ten years’ closure in the board’s report for 1895. Dr Fulton’s summary showed that “no very marked change took place in the abundance of food-fishes generally, either in the closed or open waters of the Firth of Forth or St Andrews Bay,” as a consequence of the prohibition of trawling. Nevertheless, among flat fishes, plaice and lemon soles, which spawn off-shore, were reported to have decreased in numbers in all the areas investigated, whether closed or open, while dabs and long rough dabs showed a preponderating, if not quite universal, increase.
The results of this classical experiment point strongly to the presumptions (1) that trawling operations in the open sea have now exceeded the point at which their effect on the supply of eggs and fry for the upkeep of the flat fisheries is inappreciable; and (2) that protection of in-shore areas alone is insufficient to check the impoverishment caused by over-fishing off-shore. (For critical examinations of Dr Fulton’s account see M‘Intosh, Resources of the Sea, London, 1889; Garstang, “The Impoverishment of the Sea,” Journ. Mar. Biol. Ass. vol. vi., 1900; and Archer, Report of Ichthyological Committee, Cd. 1312, 1902.)
A laboratory and sea-fish hatchery were subsequently established by the board at Dunbar in 1893, but removed to Aberdeen in 1900.
In 1883 a royal commission, under the chairmanship of the late earl of Dalhousie, was appointed to inquire into complaints against the practice of beam-trawling on the part of line and drift-net fishermen. A small sum of money (£200) was granted to the commission for the purpose of scientific trawling experiments, which were carried out by Professor M’Intosh.
The report of this commission was an important one, and its recommendations resulted in the institution of fishery statistics for England, Scotland and Ireland (1885-1887).
In 1884 the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom was founded for the scientific study of marine zoology and botany, especially as bearing upon the food, habits and life-conditions of British food-fishes, crustacea and molluscs. Professor Huxley was its first president, and Professor Ray Lankester, who initiated the movement, succeeded him. A large and well-equipped laboratory was erected at Plymouth, and formally opened for work in 1888. The work of the association has been maintained by annual grants of £400 from the Fishmongers’ Company and £1000 from H. M. treasury, and by the subscriptions of the members. The association publishes a half-yearly journal recording the results of its investigations.
In 1886 a fishery department of the Board of Trade was organized under the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act of that year. The department publishes annually a return of statistics of sea-fish landed, a report on salmon fisheries (transferred from the home office), and a report on sea fisheries. It consists of several inspectors under an assistant secretary of the board; it has no power to make scientific investigations or bye-laws and regulations affecting the sea-fisheries. In 1894 the administration of the acts relating to the registration of fishing vessels, &c., was transferred to the fisheries department.
In 1888 the Sea Fisheries Regulation Act provided for the constitution (by provisional order of the Board of Trade) of local fisheries committees having, within defined limits, powers for the regulation of coast fisheries in England and Wales. The powers of district committees were extended under Part II. of the Fisheries Act 1891, and again under the Fisheries (Shell Fish) Regulation Act 1894. Sea-fisheries districts have now been created round nearly the whole coast of England and Wales. Under bye-laws of these committees steam-trawling has been prohibited in nearly all the territorial waters of England and Wales, and trawling by smaller boats has been placed under a variety of restrictions. Local scientific investigations have been initiated under several of the committees, especially in Lancashire by Professor Herdman of Liverpool and his assistants.
In 1890 an important survey of the fishing grounds off the west coast of Ireland was undertaken by the Royal Dublin Society, with assistance from the government, and in the hands of Mr E.W.L. Holt led to the acquisition of much valuable information concerning the spawning habits of fishes and the distribution of fish on the Atlantic seaboard.
In 1892, under powers conferred by the Herring Fishery (Scotland) Act of 1889, the Fishery Board for Scotland closed the whole of the Moray Firth—including a large tract of extra-territorial waters—against trawling, in order to test experimentally the effect of protecting certain spawning grounds in the outer parts of the firth. The closure has given rise to a succession of protests from the leaders of the trawling industry in Aberdeen and England. It seems that the difficulty of policing so large an area, as well as the absence of any power to enforce the restriction on foreign vessels, have defeated the original intention; and the bye-law appears to be now retained mainly in deference to the wishes of the local line-fishermen, the decadence of whose industry—from economic causes which have been alluded to above—is manifest from the figures in Table X. below. The controversy has had the effect of causing the transference of a number of English trawlers to foreign flags, especially the Norwegian.