50 THE FISHING INDUSTRY 



Drifting. The drift net is essentially a completely 

 submerged, vertical curtain of netting, one end of which 

 is attached to a boat called a drifter. The net extends 

 in a straight line from the boat, and may be as much as 

 three miles long. Unlike the trawl net, the drift net 

 generally catches one kind of fish only either herring 

 or mackerel drift net fishing being carried on at a 

 time when these fish come together in shoals near the 

 surface for the purpose of spawning. The trawl 

 obviously only captures fish living at the bottom. At 

 the same time, of course, it captures all the fish at the 

 bottom, whether immature, or useless star fish, etc. 

 The drift net, on the other hand, is generally used for a 

 particular kind of fish herring, mackerel, sprat and 

 only catches fish above a certain size. 



A drifter may be as much as 90 ft. long, with 20 ft. 

 beam and 10 ft. draught. Its foremast is so constructed 

 that it may be lowered when the vessel is steaming 

 against a head wind, or when it is fishing. The ordinary 

 sailing drifter is rapidly being superseded by the steam 

 drifter, partly because the greater power of the steam 

 driven boat increases its capacity and scope, and, further, 

 owing to the centralization of the industry at a few big 

 ports at certain times of the year, these harbours are 

 so crowded that it is almost impossible to handle a 

 sailing drifter in them. Many of the larger sailing 

 drifters have been equipped with petrol engines which 

 largely discount this disadvantage. A steam drifter 

 can travel at from 11 to 12 knots, and both steamers 

 and sailers carry a fishing crew of seven men and a boy. 



Inshore Fisheries. The development of steam fish- 

 ing trawling and drifting has resulted in the re-group- 

 ing of the fishing industry into two well-marked divisions. 

 Fisheries, whether trawling, drifting or lining, that are 

 carried on in deep water far from shore in large steamers, 



