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Show LOSS OF FISH IS SERIOUS PROBLEM. Fishing has been one of the great means of livelihood for the people involved in-volved in the present great war, and the interruption which the conflict has caused threatens to add to the distress in Europe. This view is taken tak-en by W. J. Showalter, who says: "With its war zones and counter war zones, Its mined areas, Its hostile hos-tile fleets, and its heavily defended shores, the North sea, in a few months, has been transformed from one of tho richest food-producing areas In Christendom Into a region upon whose mastery may depend the starvation of one or the other of two ol the mightiest nations of the earth. In times of peace no other like area In all the seas ever has given to humanity hu-manity such rich supplies of food as this narrow strait separating Albion from the continent of Europe. During the year previous to the present war, a million and a quarter tons of fish were taken here, enough to fill a pro cession of fish trucks reaching across the United States from New York to San Francisco. 'Just how serious this food shortage short-age caused by war's embargo of peaee-fu peaee-fu effort in the North sea is, and may become, we in America, for whom fish forms such a minor port of the daily diet, can comprehend only with difficulty Europe has depended very much 1 on these fisheries for fish supplies. ; More than half of all the fish produced pro-duced in all the waters of Europe are caught within the limited territory terri-tory that constitutes the North sen fishing gTounds How much they are depended upon Is shown by the fact that Great Britain annually absorbs 1.000, dOO.000 pounds of North sea fish that mean twenty-two pounds per capita. And while this is small in proportion to her per capita meat consumption of 119 pounds, yet it Is that margin which represents the dif ference between a bounteous plenty and positive hunger unless other foods can be secured to take Its place. "Germany's dependence upon North sea fish production Is much the same as Great Britain's, while the dependence depend-ence of the north countries, of France. Austria-Hungary and Russia is even greater, according to tbis writer, who explains that Investigation reveals the fact that as meat becomes less and less important in a nation's dietary, fish becomes more and more important. import-ant. Great Britain and Germany are shown to be the great meat consumers consum-ers of Europe, with respective per capita cap-ita consumptions of 119 and 111 pounds Franco has a per capita con sumption of eight) pounds, Belgium seventy. Austria-Hungary sixty-four, and Russia fifty "Moreover, a closed North sea has thrown out of work a hundred thousand thou-sand Englishmen who manned the steam trawl, the drifter and the sailing sail-ing boat, together with tens of thousands thou-sands of German. Dutch, Danish, Scandinavian, Belgian and French lisherfolk. While all supplies of fresh fish are dwindling to negligible amounts and while little provision Is being made for future supplies of dried and salt fish, it is to be presumed, pre-sumed, the writer says, that the warring war-ring nations had considerable quantities quanti-ties of preserved fish on hand at the outbreak of the war. The vast pro portion of fish consumed in Europe is salt fish, and it forms the mainstay of the larders of the. poor. But for the salt herring, there are thousands of families in England and on the continent who would very rarely know the state of flesh. "Grimsby is the fishing capital of tbe world, with an annual output ot perhaps ;?G0.00fi tons of fish. More than 600 steam trawlers operate from this port in time of peace, and a spe elal harbor has been built for the fish trade, Including an outer basin of I twelve acres and an Inner basin of ! fitteen acres, and two dry docks. And Billingsgate Is the world's greatest middleman's fish market, handling the more than one million and a half pounds of fish thai Ir consumed every day by the city of London In normal times." oo |