80 



10th August, and on the following morning the catches landed 

 consisted of smaller fish in which there was a high number of fish 

 with two winter rings. In the middle of August catches were 

 generally light, and consisted of 2, 3 or 4 crans. One or two landings 

 contained herrings of a quality to be expected at this time of the 

 year, but others contained large numbers of fish with two winter 

 rings. The fishery remained in this condition until 4th September, 

 when observations were concluded. 



North Shields was not the only port where irregular and 

 small catches marked the fishery. Mr. Brown has informed me 

 that the season at Lerwick was peculiar, and that he never had 

 a chance of sending me a sample of young herrings. Mr. Duncan 

 Maclver, writing in July, stated that at Stornoway they had no 

 real summer, fat matties, and that most of the herrings were 

 coarse and more like winter herrings. Information received 

 from fishermen, who had fished out of Wick and Peterhead, and 

 from trade papers, points to the East Coast fishery of Scotland 

 being characterised by irregular and small catches. Occasional 

 large catches were landed, but the fishery gave no evidence of 

 there being extensive shoals off the coast. 



Fishermen have reported the extremely large number of 

 jellyfish which fouled their nets during the herring season, and 

 as late as 13th November large quantities were noticed by a North 

 Shields trawler 130 miles N.E. of the Tyne. Statements that 

 the sea was " dirty " were common from men who had fished 

 from the different ports of the east coast. The Fishery Board 

 for Scotland has furnished me with particulars as to the unusual 

 catches of trawled herrings landed at Aberdeen from the Fladden 

 Grounds from the end of August to the beginning of October. 

 These grounds though regularly fished by trawlers have not pre- 

 viously yielded herrings in quantity. To begin with, the fish 

 were full of milt and roe, but later were mixed with spent fish, 

 and it would appear that the area was used as a spawning ground. 



Whilst hydrographical conditions may have been unusual 

 there is no evidence to hand to state that this was so, and that 

 it would account for the comparative failure of the summer fishery. 

 The whole of the evidence available points to the fishery being 

 a failure because of the comparatively small number of fish with 



