65 
west of Ireland fishery. A parallel to this is seen in the catches 
made from the two fisheries in 1909 and 1910. The first of these 
years gave an enormous increase in the yield from the shoals of 
the north-west of Ireland, and it was not until the following year 
that increased catches came from the Loch Fyne shoals. 
It would appear that, during the period of the failure of the 
Loch Fyne fishery, the conditions which determined good or poor 
year-classes, and which were present in the Atlantic, did not obtain 
to anything approaching the same extent in the Firth of Clyde, 
and that these conditions did not reach the Clyde area until a 
year later than they were off the north-west of Ireland. In other 
words, the failure of the Loch Fyne fishery has been due to a change 
in oceanic circulation. 
WEST OF THE SHETLANDS.—It has been shown that the North 
Sea, from the catches of 1907, contained very large numbers of 
the 1904 year-class. At this time the fishery of the west of the 
Shetlands was a failure. Some valuable data with regard to the 
Shetland fishery are given in the Report of the Committee appointed 
by the Fishery Board for Scotland to enquire into the Scottish 
whaling industry. The Committee received much evidence which 
emphasised the fact that the failure of the herring fishery of the 
west of the Shetlands coincided with the establishment of whaling 
stations on that coast. The opinion of large numbers of practical 
men cannot be considered lightly, but it may be that the failure 
was due, to some extent, to the same causes which brought about 
the failure of the Loch Fyne fishery. 
From the data given in the Report above mentioned (page 
13) the most important of the west side sections were Ronasvoe 
and Hillswick. The catches made at these stations were :— 
L903. 20234 crans: 1906... 1,406 erans. 
UGO4te ses T4525 =. . TOOT ae Bek: 
OVS) ae: SOOM ss IOS) ss oy O42, 
») 
The fishery failed in 1905, which was shortly after the failure 
of the Loch Fyne fishery, and this season, 1922, large catches 
have been made to the west of the Shetlands. A sample examined 
in June of this year showed the predominant year-class to be that 
of 1917, the same as was found in the shoals of the Clyde. The 
age composition of the sample was as follows :— 
