SALMON AND FRESHWATER FISHERIES. (Hansard, 12 March 1929)

§ Major ROPNER

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend Section thirty-two of the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act, 1923. The object of the Bill is to correct what amounts to a drafting omission in the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act, 1923. Prior to 1923 migratory trout were considered to be a species of salmon, but the Act of that year decreed that in future sea trout should be trout and more nearly related to brown trout than to salmon. The Act contains a Section which provides that where, by by-law, it is legal to catch salmon during the close season, the salmon so caught may be sold, but owing to an oversight no provision of a similar nature was made in the case of sea trout. The House will understand that when sea trout were legally salmon this was not necessary, 992 but now that migratory trout are legally trout, this anomalous position can and does arise—that in the case of all rivers sea trout may be caught on the last day of August, but may not be sold on the following day, 1st September, which is the commencement of the close season. In the case of the Tees, in which I am particularly interested, the Tweed, the Yorkshire Esk, the Trent, the Frome, the Devonshire Avon and several other rivers where by-laws allow sea trout to be taken during September, the fish so caught are precluded entirely from sale. The fish may be caught but they may not be sold. I am sure the House will agree that that is a ridiculous position. The effect of the 1923 Act has been to inflict considerable hardship on a number of net fishermen and the Bill seeks to remove that hardship. The only other point which arises is that the law, as it stands, prohibits the sale of frozen trout imported from Newfoundland and Canada during the close season when it would provide an inexpensive and valuable addition to the food supplies of the nation. Both difficulties to which I have briefly referred will be removed by the passing of the Bill.