Aberdeen Fishery Statistics. 



TABLE VI. 



Percentage of Total Number of Voyages of Aberdeen Trawlers 

 to the various Grounds. 



21 



We see that, out of a total of over 12,000 voyages, a little over 

 10,000 (or 83 "5 per cent.) were made to the North Sea, while over 5000 

 of these were short trips to the " Near " or East Coast grounds. The 

 North Sea contributed some 67 per cent, of the whole earnings of the 

 trawling fleet, as compared with 68"7 per cent, in 1902. The relative 

 proportion of voyages to the different areas was very much the same 

 in 1913 as in 1912 (Table VI.), but there was a falling-oif in voyages 

 to the Western grounds (6 per cent., as against 8'7 per cent.), and a 

 corresponding increase in the voyages to Faroe and Iceland (7 '9 

 per cent, as against 6'5 per cent.). From Table VI. we see that 

 diu-ing the last nine years the relative amount of fishing in the North 

 Sea has remained remarkably constant, but there is of late rather less 

 fishing on Northern grounds. Fishing on the Western grounds has 

 diminished very considerably dming the last six or seven years. 



The average earnings per trip (Table V.) were distinctly higher than 

 in the previous years (£99 as against £88), and in each separate region 

 the average earnings per voyage were likewise, in gxeater or less degree, 

 improved. The total earnings of the fieet were approximately 18 per 

 cent, higher than in 1912. 



But, as has been repeatedly explained in these Reports, the most 

 important and the most practical lessons that are contained in our 

 mass of detailed statistics are those which we learn by studying the 

 average catch of each particular fish, on one area after another, month 

 by month and year after year. It is in this way, and this alone, that 

 we come to understand, firstly, the ordinary seasonal fluctuations, 

 due mainly to migTation, which each fish is subject to according to 

 the locality ; and, secondly, the changes in abundance over a long 

 period of years that tell us whether or no this or that fish is showing 

 signs of gradual diminution in abundance. It is not necessary that 

 such questions should be reopened year after year for every single 

 species of fish ; it will be quite enough, as I explained in last year's 

 Report, if we deal each year with three or fom' illustrative cases, and so 

 gradually, in the com-se of a few years, overtake the whole. Last year 



