42 



Tyne, and catches were made in water so shallow that there was 

 difficulty in keeping the nets off the bottom. 



From such evidence it might be taken that our herring shoals 

 are decreasing. But the use of steam and oil power has increased 

 the radius of action of fishing vessels and catches are now taken 

 much further out to sea. These catches show an increase. It 

 is probable that the large fleets of nets which are shot nearlj^ every 

 night of the fishing season, have prevented the fish from coming 

 close inshore, and that sjDa^Aiiing grounds have changed for the 

 same reason. 



It has been sho^^^l that the wealth of our summer fisher}^ 

 depends upon the young fish, the predominant year class of which 

 has three rings, and that these young fish arise from both spring 

 and autumn spa\\-ning shoals. With the exception of the Firth 

 of Forth, the chief spa^^iiing grounds for spring spawiiers are in 

 the waters to the north of Scotland, about the Shetlands, the 

 Orknej^s, the north coast of Sutherland, the Butt of Lewis and 

 iwssibly other localities, not frequently fished, such as Sule Skerry. 

 These grounds yield large catches of fish, but the catch is controlled 

 to some extent by weather conditions. During the last spring 

 fishery severe winter weather greatly hindered the fisher}^ 

 in the Firth of Forth and about the north of the Shetlands. 



Further information about the herring fishery of previous 

 years and the habits of the shoals appears to be desirable. 



The most wasteful fishery for herrings at present appears to 

 be the catching of young fish of the and I groups. I^arge 

 quantities of young herrings are caught in the Moray Firth, the 

 Firths of Tay and Forth, the coast of East Anglia, the Thames 

 estuary and up to late years in the Wash. Those from the Firth of 

 Forth after sorting, the small being thrown overboard, dead, are 

 worth from 10s. to 15s. a cran. Barrels examined at North Shields 

 and coming from the Firth of Forth contained varying numbers 

 of fish at the end of the first and second year growth periods. 

 A cran of the largest, at the end of the second year, would contain 

 on a low estimate 5,000 herrings. , In a j^ear and a haK these young 

 would have joined the summer feeding shoals. Their increased 

 size would have been sufficient to make the one cran into four, 

 and their value would have been at least eight times greater. 

 Herrings of this size and age are not of the best quality for canning 

 purposes, and it would be interesting to know the numbers caught 

 and the quantity used as food in this country. 



