THE HADDOCK PROBLEM 77 



The remaining ports in England landed between them 3,491 

 tons only, and no one of them as much as 1,000 tons. Of these 

 3,491 tons, no less than 3,244 were landed at Sunderland, 

 Hartlepool, Scarborough, Boston, Plymouth, Cardiff, Swansea, 

 and Milford. 



These figures show that the haddock industry was mainly 

 a steam-trawl industry in England. 



Haddock in 1913 formed 18-59 i per cent, of the Enghsh 

 catch of l)ottom fish ; 61 per cent, came from the North Sea, 

 nearly 20 per cent, from Iceland, 10 per cent, from Faeroe, and 

 3 per cent, from the westward of Scotland. 



In Scotland steam trawlers landed 32,258 tons (out of 36,505),2 

 and of these 28,554 tons were landed on the east coast. 



The chief landings by districts were : 



Tons. 



Aberdeen district 19,868 



Leith 6.165 



Montrose 2,439 



28,472 



Of the total Scottish catch, 75 per cent, came from the North 

 Sea, nearly 14 per cent, from Iceland and Faeroe, and 7 per cent, 

 from the Western Grounds. 



Traditional Fluctuations in the Catch 



Bertram, writing in 1873 and 1885 {Harvest of the Sea), says 

 that this ' prime fish ' has always been popular. With refer- 

 ence to what follows here it is worth recording that he had 

 ' been reminded of a time in 1790 when three of these fish were 

 sold for 7s. 6fL in the Edinburgh market ' — and that it has 

 * more than once become scarce '.^ 



Meek has discovered in the Transactions of the Royal Society, 

 1792, a paper by the Rev. Cooper Abbs, which describes the 

 failure of haddock on the north-east coast here referred to. 

 The winter fishery was a failure, and the scarcity continued for 

 the next three years. Mr. Abbs was told by the masters of 

 vessels trading to Archangel that at the end of July 1789, 

 between 68° and 69° N., ' in the Barents Sea the sea was 

 found to be covered with large haddock and coalfish all dying 

 at the surface. Their air bladders were much inflated.' 



In 1906 it was 33 per cent. ; in 1910 it was 23 per cent. 



^ In 1919 the catch of haddock in Scotland was 45,197 tons, of which steam 

 trawlers landed 33,748 ; motor liners, 8,808 ; sailing liners, 2,623. 



3 The east coast fishermen maintain that a spell of heavy weather from the 

 north-east is necessary to ' drive the haddock inshore '. 



