Aberdeen Fishery Statistics, 



17 



productiveness in spite of the immense amount of fishing that has all 

 along gone on within them ; and this fact is now more conspicuous 

 and more remarkable tlian ever. 



Here are the total quantities landed, in 1913-16, from the East 

 Coast Grounds as a whole : — 



East Coast 

 Catch. 



1913 

 1914 

 1915 

 1916 



Cwts. 



280,000 

 244,000 

 337,000 

 246,000 



Per Cent, 

 of 1913. 



100-0 

 86-9 



120-3 

 87-9 



Per Cent, of 

 total land- 

 ings from 

 North Sea. 



22-4 



26-1 



72-5 



76-4 



Per Cent, of 

 total from 

 all fishing- 

 grounds. 

 13-1 

 13-6 

 47-3 

 44-3 



We see, accordingly, that the landings from this East Coast 

 region were even in 1916 nearly 90 per cent, of the quantities landed 

 from the same region before the war; and that in 1915 the landings 

 were greatly in excess of 1913 and all previous years. Further we 

 see that, from yielding us 13 per cent, of the whole trawl-supply of 

 the Aberdeen market, this region (very much diminished in available 

 area) now yields some 45 per cent, of the whole. And lastly, that 

 this restricted region now gives us more than three-quarters of the 

 whole supply of trawled fish from the North Sea. 



Here is a supplementary Table (K), showing month by month, from 

 the beginning of 1913, the percentage proportions of the total 

 trawled catch yielded by the East Coast areas. 



TABLE K. 



Percentage yielded by the East Coast areas of the Total Catch of 

 Trawled Fish landed at Aberdeen, 1913-1916. 



We notice that ev^en in 1913 (^as in other pre-war years) the yield 

 of these areas tended to increase considerably in the summer months. 

 This, indeed, is a well-known fact, to which we have called attention 

 in former years ; and it is due to various causes, — among others to a 

 tendency of the Iceland fishery to fall off at this season, and to a 

 general disposition on the part of the trawl-masters to fish near home 

 in the hot weather. Whatever be the reason, or reasons, then, we 

 see that in August and September even in 1913 the East Coast 

 grounds were yielding more than one-fifth of the whole Aberdeen 

 supply of trawled fish. But by Christmas of 1914 they were yield- 

 ing half of the whole supply; by August and September 1915, three- 

 fifths; and in November and December of the same year three- 

 quarters of the whole. The proportion fiuctuated somewhat, but still 

 remained very high, throughout the year 1916. 



5. The landings from Iceland showed a very great falling ofl" in 

 2 



