HC Deb 22 February 1886 vol 302 cc902-3
COLONEL NOLAN

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, If his attention has been directed to the following paragraphs in the Report of the Trawling Commission:— The fishermen were almost unanimous in stating that the decrease of haddock and flat fish had been contemporaneous with trawling: In Norway and Sweden there is no beam trawling: In Denmark, in France (except in a few places for special reasons), and in Germany, off some parts of the Baltic Coast, it is forbidden by law within the three miles limit: The number of fish on particular grounds, especially in narrow waters, may be sensibly diminished by the use of the beam trawl; if it has now been officially admitted by the Government that the great majority of the fishermen and the inhabitants residing near Galway Bay would desire that trawling should be prohibited in the whole or part of the Bay; and, if the Government, either by legislation or otherwise, will endeavour to give effect to their wishes?

THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. JOHN MORLEY)

I think I shall best answer this Question by quoting a passage from a Report of the Inspectors of Fisheries on the subject. The Inspectors say— If it were admitted that the feelings of a certain class of fishermen or of the inhabitants of a certain place against a certain mode of fishing, such as trawling, should be the basis on which that mode of fishing should be prohibited, the Royal Commission should have reported that trawling should be prohibited on the East Coast of Scotland and parts of the East Coast of England in consequence of the feeling exhibited by other fishermen in these places. The practice of trawling should only be prohibited in cases where it may be proved that it is injurious and detrimental to the fisheries, and consequently to the public interests. This has not been proved in Galway Bay. On the contrary, the evidence proved to the satisfaction of the Inspectors the necessity for repealing in 1877 a bye-law prohibiting it in certain places in that bay.