Abstract
THE general report for 1894 of the Fishery Board for Scotland contains evidences of the revolution which is quietly but steadily effecting a complete change in the methods of the fishing industry. There is a further falling-off in the number of fishermen and fishing boats engaged in the herring and line fishing. The sailing craft continue to give way before steam trawlers and steam liners, and the competition for the best markets is bringing about an increased centralisation of the fishing industry. The smaller and healthier creeks and villages are being gradually depopulated, and the larger ports are becoming overcrowded. The summer herring fishing is being forsaken for line fishing, which can be prosecuted all the year round. Steam liners are consequently increasing rapidly in number, and during the past year have proved most successful. Indeed, in spite of the falling off in the means of capture, the decrease in the total quantity of fish landed, as compared with the returns for 1893, amounted to only 19,000 cwts. This state of things may be attributed to the fact that the steam trawlers and liners are able to proceed much further out to sea than sailing craft, and are able to fish over fresh grounds where large catches are frequently obtained. Being larger and stronger, moreover, these vessels are to a great extent independent of wind and weather, which seriously affect the movements of the smaller sailing boats. Herring were locally plentiful, and of a quality never excelled within modern times. They were especially abundant in the Orkneys and Shetlands— where the catch was double that of 1893—and in the Campbelltown area; but the herring fishery in the Hebrides was again a failure, and this is the more to be regretted as Stornoway, the most important centre for ling, also exhibited a large falling off in the returns of the latter fish. It is gratifying to notice a slight increase in the returns of flat fish, especially in view of the complaints of the depletion of grounds frequented by them. The increase may, however, be due to the hauls made by steam trawlers working on fresh and more distant grounds. For the first time in the Board's returns, a table is given of the number of persons engaged in Scotch fisheries on sea and land; there are more than 117,000 people taking some part in the various branches of the industry.
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Recent Fishery Literature. Nature 52, 657–658 (1895). https://doi.org/10.1038/052657a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/052657a0