Great Britain 



The Future of Fish Harvesting 



by Basil A. Parkes 

 President, Boston Deep Sea Fisheries, Hull, England 



I have made every endeavour to keep this paper strictly 

 to the subject of the harvesting of fish in the seas. I have found 

 this more than a little difficult for, as in farming, harvesting is 

 affected by all the other aspects of husbandry. It Is a segment 

 of a cycle of interrelated activities which can be separated only 

 with some arbitrariness and artificiality. I know, therefore, 

 you will forgive me if at times, in the interests of realism, I stray 

 beyond my authorised limits. ( It is perhaps a characteristic of 

 fishing industries the world over to regard limits of all kinds as 

 things to be strayed over from time to time ! ) 



My remarks are largely concerned with the North Atlantic. 

 Moreover, I speak as a practical man operating fishing fleets in 

 the light of a commercial profit and loss account and in the per- 

 spective of a company balance sheet. You will I hope forgive 

 me, therefore, if my observations remain on a more mundane 

 and somewhat less joyful level than those whose sweep — from 

 the point of view of geography, criteria and time — is much 

 broader and whose analysis leads them to speak reassuringly of 

 the prolific promise — a new Garden of Eden — that the world's 

 oceans hold out to the seething billions in generations yet 

 unborn. 



I will begin by indicating briefly the types of fishing vessels 

 which Great Britain and many of our European neighbours 

 are using in the North Atlantic in which I include the North 

 Sea and Arctic waters. 



We have a large fleet of roughly 1,000 Seine net fishing 

 vessels, ranging from 45' to 80' in length. Most of the vessels 

 are built of hard wood powered by engines ranging from 

 100/200 horsepower. A large proportion of these vessels are 

 operated from Scotland and are mainly Skipper and family 

 owned. Most of these vessels are not operated in the same 

 manner as the Danish Seine netters; they do tend to tow their 

 gear after the trawl and the Seine net ropes have been shot. 

 This is a type of fishing that has expanded very greatly since 

 the war and is being successfully operated. This type of mainly 

 inshore fishing vessel should derive considerable benefit from 

 the new limit lines after they have been in operation for two to 

 three years. 



In most of these countries, the trawling fleets are divided 

 into four main types : Firstly, there are the near water trawlers. 

 These lie within the range of about 90 to 120 feet overall; 22 



to 24 ft. beam, with 10 to 12 feet moulded depth, gross tonnages 

 range from 150 to 200 tons and horsepowers from 300 to 500, 

 giving speeds of 9 to 11 knots. These vessels operate in the 

 North Sea, the Irish Sea and the other waters fairly near to the 

 coasts of Great Britain and the other maritime European 

 countries. 



Secondly, there are middle water trawlers which in length 

 range from 120 to 150 overall; 25 to 29 ft. beam, with 12 to 14 

 ft. moulded depth, gross tonnages range from 200 to 450 tons 

 and horsepowers from 700 up to 1200, giving speeds of 1 1 to 

 13 knots. These vessels mainly fish in the deep water grounds 

 of the Continental Shelf on the West and North of Scotland, 

 at the Faroe Islands — or rather on the few grounds that still 

 remain open to us there — and also on the grounds around 

 Iceland. 



Thirdly, there are distant water trawlers. These range from 

 about 150 to a little over 200 feet overall, with a beam of 28 

 to 33 feet, tonnages ranging from 450 to 850 tons, with speeds 

 varying from 12 to 15 knots. They spend most of their time 

 fishing at Iceland, Norway Coast, in the Barents Sea, Bear 

 Island, Spitzbergen, Greenland, and occasionally the New- 

 foundland Banks and Labrador. Very few distant water 

 trawlers have been built during the last three or four years 

 as owners have been considering the economics of stern-fishing 

 freezer-trawlers. 



Britain now has 7 such stern-freezers operating ( apart from 

 the 3 Fairtry factory trawlers ) . One of these, the first freezer 

 trawler to be built in Britain, freezes only the first part of its 

 catch; the last 150 tons caught are brought back packed in ice 

 in the traditional way. But no more hybrids of this kind are 

 likely to be built. The remainder of the stern-freezers, and 

 there are a further 15 or so now being built or on order, are 

 designed to freeze all their catches as gutted whole fish, some- 

 times headless but never filleted or processed in any way. 



However, most if not all of these freezers have been designed 

 with the possibility in mind of installing a filleting line, and a 

 small fish meal plant for the offal, at a later stage if circum- 

 stances warrant it. The dimensions of these ships vary from 

 210 to 250 feet overall, 36 to 42 feet beam, 16 to 24 feet 

 moulded depth, with powers ranging from 1500 to 2500 horse- 

 power and speeds from 13{/ 2 to 1 5 J/i knots. Some are diesel- 



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