It will be within the recollection not only of the comparatively small section of the community which is consciously interested in fishery matters, but of all those whom a sense of public duty or a lack of other occupation compels to some acquaintance with the current topics of the day, that the question of the deterioration of our sea fisheries commenced some few years back to assume something approaching to prominence. One of the earlier indications of the importance with which the question was invested, in the minds of those principally concerned, was the formation, in 1882, by a number of fish merchants, smack-owners, and others, of the National Sea Fisheries Protection Association,—a title which may well be forgiven for its length, in consideration of the happy augury it holds out of the enduring nature of the Association's services to one of our most deserving industries.