4 Fishery Board for Scotland. 



that the value of the fleet has increased about five times, from about 

 £230,000 to over £1,000,000 at Aberdeen. 



A cmious and significant feature of the Aberdeen market dm'ing 

 the last three or four years has been the great increase in number and 

 importance of the German landings at the port. The German trawlers 

 are all large vessels, well-found and well-manned, and their captains 

 are men oiE more than average capacity. These vessels are employed 

 for the most part in the Iceland fishery, with occasional voyages to 

 the White Sea, the North Cape, etc., and the extent of their operations 

 may be judged from the following Table : — 



TABLE B. 



Number of Trawlers, British and Foreign, landing at Aberdeen, during 

 the year 1913, from Iceland, Faroe, and the White Sea. 



British 



German 



Dutch 



Iceland. 



. 37 



. 529 



2 



Faeroe. 

 389 



White Sea. 



26 



That is to say, while the Faroe trawl-fishery, as far as Aberdeen 

 is concerned, is still in British hands, about 90 per cent, of the valuable 

 Iceland trawl-fishery has passed into the hands of oiu- German com- 

 petitors. In other words, the Scottish trawl-master can no longer 

 compete with the German in the more distant fishing- grounds. The 

 following Table (C) illustrates the difference between the average 

 returns per voyage from foreigners fishing on these distant fishing- 

 grounds, and those from the common run of trips (both near and far) 

 by Scottish vessels. 



TABLE C. 



Average Keturn, per Voyage, in Quantity and Value, of British and 

 Foreign Trawlers, fishing from the Port of Aberdeen, 1913. 



That is to say, while the foreign trawlers form less than one- 

 twentieth part of the whole number landing at Aberdeen, they land 

 close upon one-quarter of the whole amount of trawled fish landed at 

 the port. The value, as is always the case with Iceland fish, is com- 

 paratively low, being just about one-half that of the general average, 

 namely, 6s. 8d. as against 12s. 4d. per cwt. But even so, the return per 

 voyage is nearly three and a half times greater in the case of the foreign 



