THE CATCH OF HAKE 109 



The only other considerable catches were landed at Plymouth 

 (872 tons) and Hull (572). 



In Scotland, Aberdeen landed 861 tons. 



The growing demand for hake in the British Isles, which is 

 reflected by the steadily rising price, was created by the ' Fish 

 Friers ' towards the end of the last century. It is therefore 

 a ' new ' industry ; a ' South-Western area ' industry ; a steam 

 trawler industry ; and a British industry. 



In 1913 hake formed 7-43 per cent, of the catch of bottom 

 fish. 57-91 per cent, came from the southward of Ireland ; 

 15-55 per cent, from the w^estward of Scotland ; 12-75 per cent, 

 from the westward of Ireland ; 7-00 per cent, from Portugal 

 and Morocco ; 2-73 per cent, from the Irish Sea ; 1-43 per cent. 

 from the Bay of Biscay ; and 1-05 per cent, from the Bristol 

 Channel. 



They formed 74 per cent, of the catch of trawlers on the 

 Portuguese and Moroccan grounds ; 58 per cent, in the Bay of 

 Biscay ; 54 per cent, to the south of Ireland ; and 50 per cent, 

 to the west of Ireland. These are the regions fished by ' hake 

 boats '. Elsewhere they were only an incidental portion of 

 a catch of other fish. 



Fluctuations in the Catch 



Hake-fishing, like most other forms of fishing from ' dry fly ' 

 downwards, is according to its votaries perpetually 'going to 

 the devil '. Hake are ' easily scared ' ; ' very sensitive to heavy 

 fishing ' ; ' easily fished out ' — and so forth. We shall see that 

 in the nineties hake ' disappeared ' from the ' Smalls ' off 

 Milford Haven, but are now being caught there in great 

 numbers. A similar catastrophe overtook the hake fishermen 

 of Cap Breton,^ to the north of Biarritz, early in this century, 

 ' the fish persistently and increasingly deserting the coast, and 

 the fishermen being without the means of going in search of 

 them in the deep bottoms '. At first, of course — as is the way 

 of fishermen — the man with the latest gear was blamed as 

 a ' poacher ', so it was the steam-trawler who did it. But, says 



1 M. A. Herubel, Sea Fisheries, p. 102 (1912). 



