of the Fishery Board for Sootland. 91 



Thus, within five years the quantity per landing has increased by 42-9 

 cwts. Obviously, information of this kind throws no light on the funda- 

 mental question of the productiveness of fishing grounds, because the 

 increased quantity per voyage is, without doubt, due not to the increased 

 abundance of fish but to the greater duration of the average voyage, i.e., 

 more fishing. The tendency is for the smaller boats which fish near the 

 coast, and land " live " fish twice or several times weekly, to be replaced 

 by larger and more powerful vessels fishing usually in more distant waters 

 and landing weekly, or at longer intervals. 



In dealing with the vessels individually, and when the place of fishing 

 is ascertained at the same time, no doui)t the duration of the voyage 

 may afford valuable information, for the time consumed in steaming to and 

 from the ground can be calculated. But other conditions may interfere, and 

 especially bad weather, which may interrupt the fishing or compel the 

 vessel to run for shelter, and it may lie at anchor for days ; and althougli 

 over a term of years such weather interruptions may be fairly equalised, 

 they could only be ignored if the number of vessels under consideration 

 was large in proportion to the total. 



It would be much better to ascertain the " number of days fishing," 

 but there are difficulties in stating this in a uniform way, especially 

 with regard to parts of a day ; and the best course is to determine the 

 number of hours' actual fishing, which can be done by ascertaining the 

 number of drags. As a rule on the north-east grounds the drags are made 

 for five hours, the watches being arranged accordingly, but some may be 

 for four hours, and odd drags may be for three hours or six hours. The 

 facts, however, are well-known on board, and in the form already described 

 for indicating the position of the fishing grounds (p. 89) the number of 

 drags could readily be inserted and the total duration of the fishing opera- 

 tions, which gives accurately the information wanted. 



On one other point information may be desired, viz., so far as regards 

 trawlers, the length of the headline of the otter-trawl. The length varies 

 to some extent according, as a rule, to the size of the vessel (p, 120). 

 This information, however, can readily be procured at the port at intervals, 

 and at the end of the year it would be easy to strike an average for the 

 size of the trawls used by the vessels in question. The size of the mesh 

 is almost always uniform. 



With regard to great-line fishing the corresponding information concerns 

 the length of the lines, and the number of shots actually made during each 

 voyage ; and this can be readily ascertained in the same way. 



The Season of Fishing. 



In certain places the quantity of fish, or of particular kinds, may 

 vary considerably during difterent periods of the year, e.g., haddocks on 

 the north-eastern grounds in winter and early summer. If, however, 

 the records are made up monthly changes of this kind will be shown, 

 and the fishing operations in any area can be contrasted monthly or 

 annually provided the particulars required and above described are 

 ascertained. 



Conclusion. 



Since the ordinary trade or commercial statistics are not fitted to show 

 the variations in the productiveness of the fishing grounds, it is desirable 

 that specially organised statistics should be instituted at the principal 

 fishing ports for this purpose, especially concerning steam-trawlers and 

 steam-liners. It is necessary that the operations of the individual boat 



