90 



Part III — Tv-enticth Annual Report 



fouud, when this subject has been investigated in a scientific manner iu 

 each season, that the differentiation of the place of fishing from the 

 nature of the catch may be made much more precisely, and the extent of 

 the possible area of capture greatly restricted. A standard of proportional 

 distribution of this kind would be most valuable. It might be gradually 

 evolved from the scheme above outlined, the preponderance of the obser- 

 vations which gave results of a particular and uniform kind enabling 

 anomalous and mistaken results to be eliminated. It might be done by 

 sending trustworthy observers on board the fishing vessels, as I am 

 doing now, to record the place of fishing and the catches. Still better 

 would be the examination of the grounds by the steamers provided for 

 scientific investigations, in which case all the conditions could be accur- 

 ately ascertained. 



The Duration of the Fishing Operations. 



It is also necessary for the purpose in view to obtain information as 

 precise as possible regarding the duration of the fishing operations. In 

 dealing with a large volume of statistics of fish landed by a particular 

 mode of fishing, e.g., trawling, the number of registered vessels of the 

 class in question might be taken for broad results — so much fish and so 

 many vessels. But there are various circumstances which tend to render 

 this method inaccurate, especially if the question becomes limited to one 

 or a few ports. Some of the vessels during part of the year may be 

 engaged in another method of fishing, e.g., lining, by which a different 

 class of fishes are obtained. Some may be fishing part of the year, or 

 the whole year, at other ports, or landing their fish at other ports 

 — it may be in another country — and not at the port of registry. For 

 some years, for example, a number of steam trawlers registered at Port- 

 Glasgow, in the Clyde, fished entirely from Aberdeen ; vessels from 

 Fraserburgh, Granton, Peterhead, Grimsby, Hull, and from foreign ports 

 land fish at Aberdeen frequently or occasionally, and Aberdeen trawlers 

 may land fish at English ports. Thus the quantity of fish landed at a 

 particular port cannot be assumed to have been caught by the vessels 

 registered at that port, and there is no certainty that the discrepancy will 

 remain substantially the same in a series of years. 



The number of landings, trips, or voyages of the vessels has also been 

 suggested as a convenient means of supplying the information required, 

 but it is probably even less satisfactory than the numbers of registered 

 vessels. The duration of a voyage may vary greatly, from ovei' a month 

 to a single night, the quantity of fish brought ashore at each "landing " 

 varying in a corresponding degree from a few cwts. to perhaps fifty or 

 sixty tons. Thus, the number of landings by trawlers at Aberdeen, the 

 gross quantity of fish lauded, and the average quantity per landing, in 

 each of the five last years, were these : — 



