20 P(vrt III. — Twenty-fifth Annual Report 



fleet of boats were using drift-nets ; in the middle of August, 285 boats 

 employed drift-nets and 167 seines; by the end of August, 270 boats 

 used drifts and 128 seines. In September, however, heavy catches 

 began to be got by the seines, and for a week or two these nets were 

 chiefly employed, In the seasons of 1870 and 1871 the drift-net was 

 also more successful than the seine, and was much more used. 



Fishermen thus became accustomed to use either the seine-net or the 

 drift-net according to which was the more profitable, and harmony 

 prevailed among drifters and seiners so long as herrings were abundajit 

 and the fishing successful. The year 1868, the first year since 1851 in 

 which the use of the seine-net was lawful throughout the whole season 

 (although, as just stated, the drift-net was chiefly employed), the yield of 

 the fishery was very high, amounting for Loch Fyne to 39,795 crans, or 

 about 139,280 cwts. From that year to 1873 and 1874 there was a 

 gradual decline in the productiveness of the Loch Fyne herring fishery, 

 and, although, as mentioned above, the drift-net was mostly employed, 

 the seine-net began again to be held responsible for the falling-off in the 

 catch. In 1874 the local Members of Parliament (the Marquis of Lome 

 for the County of Argyll, Mr C. Dalrymple for the County of Bute, and 

 Sir William J. M. Cuninghame for the Ayr Bnrghs) undertook an 

 enquiry with a view to ascertain, if possible, what had occasioned the 

 decline. They were attended by the Assistant Inspector of Fisheries (Mr 

 George Reiach), and visited the different localities, collecting the opinions 

 of fishermen and others, and they submitted a report to the Government 

 in the following year.* They stated that they had examined the 

 antagonistic opinions of the drifters and seiners with great care, and by 

 the light of all the information they could collect, and they were not 

 satisfied that the "trawl-net," though possibly in some cases a destructive 

 and wasteful engine of fishing, was the cause of the evil. The fact could 

 not be explained away that the herrings were at that time disinclined to 

 enter other narrow waters where "trawling" was unknown. Other 

 theories had been suggested to them — such as, that the temperature of the 

 air or water or the amount of rainfall might have affected the fish 

 injuriously, or that the natural food of the herrings might have failed 

 from natural causes — for which theories, however, they thought the evi- 

 dence was very slight. On the whole they were inclined to the opinion that 

 the fishing had been carried on to too great an extent in the narrow 

 waters, and they recommended that steps should be taken to restrict it to 

 a certain extent. They recommended that the annual close-time from lat 

 February to 1st June (which was established by the Act 28 and 29 Vic. 

 c. 22, 1865) should be strictly enforced ; that the weekly close-time 

 should be extended so that, north of a line drawn from the Mull of 

 Galloway to the Mull of Kintyre, it should begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday 

 and last till midnight on Sunday ; that the old regulation against daylight 

 fishing should be renewed and enforced, and that the regulation 

 regarding the dimensions of the mesh of herring nets, which was much 

 neglected, should be enforced. 



In 1877 another Commission, consisting of Mr. Frank Buckland, 

 Sir Spencer Walpole, and Mr. Archibald Young, inquired into the 

 subject of the Scottish herring fishing, including the use and eff'ect 

 of the seine-net in Loch Fyne. They came to the same general con- 

 clusions as the previous Commissions had done, expressing the opinion 

 that " trawling " involved little, if any, more waste than drift-net 

 fishing. They also agreed that, as a mere matter of police, it was 



* Report by the Commissioners of the Fishery Board for Scotland of their 

 Proceedings in the Year ended 31st December, 1875, p. 3. 



