BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 117 



THE SCOTCH nERKIIVG FISHERIES IN 1882.* 



[From Fiakeri Tidendc, No. 1, January, 1882.] 



As the annual yield of the Seotch fisheries is not published till some 

 months after the close of the year in question, a few data respecting 

 last year's fisheries, gathered from the most reliable sources, may prove 

 of interest. The weather, all during the fishing season, was unusually 

 changeable, and the loss of life and apparatus was above the average. 

 Whenever the weather permitted the boats to approach the fishing- 

 stations, the fisheries, with hardly an exception, proved successful, and 

 large quantities of herring were caught at the fishing-stations nearest 

 the coast, where for a number of years but few fish had been caught. 



As a general rule the quality of last year's herring was very good, 

 and, as they were salted under very favorable circumstances, thesalters 

 did a very good business and could prepare a superior article. The 

 number of barrels bearing the government mark was, in proportion to 

 to the number of fish caught, much larger than in 1880, as they amounted 

 to 500,000 out of a total catch of 643,000 crans, whilst last year they 

 numbered 6S9,28G out of a total catch of 835,807 crans. 



The following table shows the number of boats engaged in the fish- 

 eries and the number of crans caught on the east coast of Scotland, from 

 Berwick to the Shetland Islands, during the last ten years : 



The average catch per boat this year was, therefore, 138 crans against 

 186 in 1880, and 107 in 1879. The earnings of the fishermen may be 

 estimated at £650,000, the value of their boats at £450,000, and of their 

 nets about £500,000. The number of fishermen exceeded 28,000, whilst 

 the number of persons engaged in preparing fish, or in some other way 

 employed in this great national industry, far exceeds that number. A 

 peculiar phenomenon is the constant decrease in the number of her- 

 ring exported to Ireland from the east coast of Scotland. Not many 

 years ago Ireland was the principal market for Scotch herring, but dur- 



* Bet Skotske Sildefiske i 1881.— Translated from the Danish by Herman Jacobson. 



