88 THE FISHING INDUSTRY 



Herring are caught with drift nets at night near the 

 surface. In the daytime they frequent the sea bottom 

 and can then be caught with a trawl net. Trawling for 

 herrings was first practised by the fishermen of Milford 

 Haven and Fleetwood in 1901. They used an ordinary 

 otter trawl lined with a piece of herring net. A 

 specially constructed herring trawl is now used, of which 

 the cod end is made of 2| in. mesh instead of the usual 

 3 1 in. 



When trawling for herrings the steamer goes at full 

 speed, generally for two to four hours, unless a shoal 

 is encountered, when half-an-hour is frequently 

 sufficient. 



Herrings are trawled in from 70 to 100 fathoms of 

 water over a soft bottom. The main centre for trawled 

 herrings is North-West of Ireland, other fisheries being 

 carried on off the South-West of Ireland, the West of 

 Scotland, and in the North Sea. In 1913 over 500,000 

 cwts. of herrings were taken with trawl nets in these 

 areas. 



This method of catching herrings aroused serious 

 opposition among the drift net fishermen. They 

 asserted that the trawl catches and destroys a high 

 proportion of immature fish, and also destroys the 

 herring eggs as it passes along the sea bottom. In 1913 

 the matter was investigated by a Parliamentary 

 Committee, but any Government action was checked by 

 the outbreak of war. 



Since 1905 the trawling grounds frequented by 

 British steam trawlers have been divided for statis- 

 tical pu rposes into eighteen fishing areas . The names and 

 areas of these regions are shown in the chart of the 

 trawling grounds (Fig. 19). 



Table I shows in hundredweights the average catch 

 per day's absence from port in different areas. 



