Aberdeen Fishery Statistics. 11 



Lastly, we may illustrate the growth of the trawling industry as a 

 whole by the help of Table H, in which is set forth the percentage 

 proportion of trawl-caught fish to the total supply from line and trawl 

 — that is to say, to the total catch of " demersal " fish. This Table 

 brings out several interesting facts. In the fiist place, it draws attention 

 to the strong contrast between certain fishes which are and always 

 have been caught almost entiiely by the trawl, such as lemon sole 

 and (though to a less extent) tmbot ; and others, such as conger-eel, 

 which are and always have been caught almost wholly by line. Again, 

 in other cases, we see how, five-and-twenty years ago, the trawling catch 

 formed an insignificant, or almost insignificant, proportion of the 

 whole, but has now come to contribute by far the greater proportion. 

 This is true, for instance, of cod, saithe, and whiting. In yet other 

 cases, such as ling, halibut, and skate, the trawl catch has pro- 

 gressively increased, forming a larger and larger percentage of the 

 whole, but nevertheless the liners still fiu"nish us with the greater 

 part of the supply. And lastly, both in regard to the total catch and 

 to each separate fish, we see more or less clearly how, diuing the 

 period in question, the trawled catch increased at first comparatively 

 slowly, then with greater and greater ra{)idity, until at length the rate 

 of increase diminished or was arrested, and a condition of approximate 

 equilibrium set in. There is, in fact, no longer, nor has there been 

 for the last few years, a tendency for the preponderance of trawled 

 over line-cauoht fish to s-o on increasing. 



