Aberdeen Fishery Statistics. 7 
TABLE Ifa. 
Average Total Catch per Voyage of Aberdeen Trawlers (‘Smoothed.’) 
Nee eee 
1905-07 | 1906-08 | 1907-09 1908-10 | 1909-11 | 1910-12 
Northern Grounds - ~—S- | -213°3 | 207-4 | 209°6 | 2089 | 200°7 | 206°8 
East Coast Grounds — - - 62°3 Gey |u6200 56°6 553 | _55°6 
Middle Grounds - - - | 150°6 143:1 | 149°7 140°0 137°2 |. 141-1 
South East Grounds - SN eLO4so 176°5 | 164:0 151°0 166°1 196°7 
| Various North Sea - =) alAUELS) 170°0 172°1 166°7 166°6 168°3 
Total North Sea - =| ileal 1281) W271 121-0 120°2 120°3 
Western Grounds - a eect 18174 194°7 197°6 194°2 | 197°9 
| Faeroe and Iceland - -| 5891 655°3 659°9 692°3 72071 | 733°7 
GRAND TOTAL - - | - 159°2 161°7 159°7 152°9 154:1 161°4 
This last Table is the best I can offer as a succinct answer to the 
question of whether the available supply of fish shows signs of 
diminution, or, to put it more accurately, whether the average catch 
is diminishing. As has been frequently explained in the Board’s 
Reports and elsewhere, this question is much too complicated to be 
properly answered in a word. It requires separate consideration for 
each species of fish, and for each separate locality, and it is only by 
the study of the Board’s more detailed statistics that this can be 
done. Nevertheless, there is here an epitomised answer to the 
question, and it is well worth studying. 
There may be omitted from consideration the Middle and South- 
Eastern grounds, as on these the amount of fishing by Aberdeen 
trawlers has been comparatively small; nor need the voyages that, 
from their irregular or unknown distribution, are grouped under the 
heading ‘“‘ Various North Sea” be considered. From all the other 
regions there is abundant information. Now, it will be seen at once 
(from Table I1a.) that there is no evidence of decrease in the catch 
per voyage from the Western grounds or from Faeroe and Iceland. 
On the contrary, there is a tendency to increase in the former case, 
and a very marked increase in the latter. This increase is, of course, 
no proof of actual increase in the abundance of fish, but is probably 
due in part to longer voyages, and in part to an increase in the size of 
the vessels and net. “'urning to the Northern (or Shetland) 
grounds, and to the Near (or Kast Coast) grounds, there are to be 
seen in both cases indications of diminution. The diminution is not 
a steady one. In the case of the Northern grounds, the average 
catch was high in the triennial period 1907-09, and in the case of the 
East Coast grounds it was nearly steady in the three triennial 
periods, 1905-07, 1906-08, 1907-09; and the fluctuations to 
which it has been subject will be still better seen in Table IT. 
However, the fact remains that the average catch per voyage nas 
fallen, in the case of the Northern grounds, from 213 ewts. per 
voyage in 1905-7 to 206 ewts. in 1909-12; in the case of the Kast 
Coast grounds, from 62 ewts. to 56 cwts. ; and for the whole North 
Sea (or rather that northern part of it frequented by Aberdeen 
trawlers), from 131 ewts. to 120 cewts. 
These indications are by no means final. The period which the 
