of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 75 



that it was misleading. In cases where any doubt occurred the record 

 was rejected ; those records were also rejected which showed the fish to 

 have been caught at more than one place, unless the places were within 

 the same area on the chart. 



By a fortunate chance I have been able to obtain similar information 

 for the first three months of the year 1891, during which period a note 

 was made of the place of fishing of all the trawlers landing fish at Aber- 

 deen. The results are given in the Tables, and thei information for these 

 months, for the corresponding months of 1901, and for the whole of 1901, 

 have been placed on charts for the purpose of comparison. The informa- 

 tion is discussed below; but it may be said here that the two chief points 

 brought out are, first, the great change which has occurred in the area of 

 fishing in the interval of ten years, and, secondly, the very different pro- 

 portions of the various kinds of food-fishes caught in different parts of 

 the North Sea. These facts have an important bearing upon the inter- 

 pretation of fishery statistics, and it may be desirable to consider the 

 point in some detail. 



The statistics of fisheries as at present exhibited although very valuable 

 from the economic point of view, as in any other industry, are not capable 

 of showing whether, or if so to what extent, impoverishment of any given 

 fishing ground is taking place. They cannot be used to measure the 

 variations in the fish supply in a given area of the sea from year to year, 

 or the effects of any particular method of fishing, because the factors 

 which are necessary for these objects are neglected. Thus they fail to 

 serve the main purpose for which they were instituted.* It is agreed that 

 the information referred to is essential for the rational regulation of 

 fisheries, and it cannot be obtained by any but statistical methods applied 

 to the fisheries themselves. Owing to the great extent of the area from 

 which the fish supply is drawn, and the fluctuations which occur from 

 natural causes, the work of a few special steamers would be quite inade- 

 quate ; and if the experimental fishing of such steamers were confined to 

 a limited area, there would be no certainty that any definite results 

 obtained there would apply elsewhere. 



At present, for example, the statistics show that the gross quantity of 

 fish landed is increasing from year to year, and that circumstance is some- 

 times adduced as proving that the fisheries and the fishing grounds are in 

 a satisfactory condition. It is, however, well known that within recent 

 years a considerable proportion of the fish supply is drawn from distant 

 seas, as Iceland and the Faroes, and that the means of capture has been 

 multiplied both in number and efficiency. The English trawlers, and 

 most of the Scottish trawl-fishermen maintain that the abundance of fish 

 on the old fishing grounds in the ISTorth Sea has become greatly reduced, 

 and that if fishing operations were restricted to the same places and the same 

 scale as previously there would be a material reduction in the fish supply. 



It is, however, necessary that this conclusion to be convincing and of 

 practical value should be established by clearly ascertained facts. 



Experience makes it evident that the fishery statistics in order to 

 provide the information required to prove whether the supply on any given 

 grounds is increasing, decreasing or stationary, must be based throughout 

 on certain principles. They should show 



(1) The quantities of the various kinds of fishes landed ; 



(2) The method of fishing by which the fish are caught ; 



(3) The places where the fish are taken ; 



(4) The duration of the fishing operations ; 



(5) The season of fishing. 



*Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Sea Fisheries of the United 

 Kingdom, cvi., 1866 ; Report on the Sea Fisheries of England and Wales, 1879, xxxii. ; 

 Report of Commissioners on Trawl Net and Beam Trawl Fishing, 1885. 



