I 



Aberdeen Fishery Statistics. 13 



We see here clearly that the percentage of trawl-caught fish, for 

 Scotland as a whole, now tends to diminish under the abnormal con- 

 ditions of war. Eoughly speaking, the percentage of trawl-caught 

 fish to the total catch by line and trawl, which had risen almost year 

 by year to about 77 per cent, in 1913, fell in 1915 to 65 per cent., 

 which had also been its value in 1901, fourteen years before ; and 

 again it fell in 1916 to 58 per cent., where it had stood approximately 

 in the year 1900. 



The Yield of the Pkincipal Fishing-Grounds. 



Let us now consider, briefly, the total catch of our Aberdeen 

 trawlers on the principal fishing-grounds, according to the regions or 

 " Grounds " which we have repeatedly defined in former Reports, and 

 w^hich (with the lielp of our chart) we may once more summarise as 

 follows : — 



(1) Northern grounds, including areas VI.-XVI. 



(2) East Coast grounds, including areas XVII., XXII., 



XXIII., XXVIIL, XXIX. 



(3) Middle grounds, including areas XVIII. -XXI., XXIV., 



XXV., XXX. 



(4) South-eastern grounds, including areas XXVI., XXVII., 



XXXI.-XL. 



(5) Various North Sea grounds, including catches made up 



from more than one of the above regions. 



(6) Western grounds, off the north-west and west coasts of 



Scotland. 



(7) Faeroe and Iceland. 



(8) Mixed grounds, to include catches made partly in the 



North Sea and partly on the western or northern fish- 

 ing-grounds. 



(9) And lastly, the White Sea, Norwegian Coast (north of 62° 



N.), and other distant fishing-grounds. 



Our statistics for these several regions are set forth in Table J in 

 our usual form, month by month ; but they are extended on this 

 occasion over four years, 1913-16. The figures for 1913 have been 

 brought down from our last Eeport, for the sake of comparison, in 

 order to show the data for one complete year before the war. 



[Table. 



