ÇHAPTER XIII
The Sea Fisheries
THE British Isles are situated in the midst of seas un—
'
rivalled for their productivity of sh life.
Around their
coasts lie the greatest sea sheries of the world.
In 1924
the value of the sea sheries to Great Britain and Ireland
reached the immense sum of twenty—one million pounds—
_
-
three times as great as that yielded by the sheries of any
other northern European nation, France coming next with
a total of seven million.
In fact the value of our sheries
amounted to nearly half of the total value of those of all
the
northern
European countries put
_
together.
But
,
seeing that practically the whole of this shing area lies
outside territorial limits these great sea sheries should be '
regarded as international in character, and as such their
total value exceeds that of any other region of the world.
Compared with Great Britain and Ireland the neiçt great
sea—shing nation is japan, the land of another island race.
in our country only some 80,000 men are employed,
in japan something like two million men are engaged in
_
.
catching
but this inequality is due.to the fact that—
while in our seas the greatest catches come from powerful
steam traW1ers With their small crews, the Japanese are
dependent for their supply on the efforts of large numbers
of men shing from small b,oats around their coasts.
The sea sherieà may be_diVided roughly into deep—sea
—
and inshore sheries, and of these the deep—sea are by far
.
-
the more valuable.
—
Amongst the inshore sheries are
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-,