16 



FISHERIES 



I I 



^Ssi! 



for open boats, the change from undecked to decked fishing 

 boftts gradually gained favour, and in now very general. 

 This alteration, however, involv.'d an in)[)ortiint change in 

 the rig of the buata in the doing away with the main lug, a 

 B'iil which for n\uny yeare had given a distinctive character 

 to the ijcotuh fishing boatn. In our notice of the Yarnioiitii 

 luggeru we mentioned that when the vessel was fishing, tlio 

 foremast waa' lowered on to a crutch on duck, so that the 

 vessel might ride easier and not roll about, as the weight of 

 the standing mast would bo likely to make her do. This 

 is the practice with all dritt-fishing bouts; but in decked 

 boats there is a dithculty in doing this with a second mast, 

 and if it were d(me there would bo so much more ham|jcr 

 upon or near the deck and in the woy of the fi-sliormur. as 

 to cause much inconvenience. The mainmast bus thercie re 

 been done away with, and the necessary after-sail is pro- 

 vided by means of a mizeii, which, being outside the stem, 

 bos plenty of power when vanted, and is out of the Wdy 

 of the fishermen. The fore-lug is made larger than it used 

 to be, so that there is still plenty of canvas, and the 

 general rig of the boats is n<)w just what has been for a 

 very long time adopted by the English fishermen as the 

 most convenient for drift-fishing. 8tcam-tugs have been 

 advantageously used in towing the fishing boats towards 

 and from their fishing ground ; but such a system could 

 hardly be generally applied to the vast fleet of boats which 

 collect in certain years at some of the stations. 



The fluctuations in the herring fishing are very remark- 

 able, but they are not more so on the coast of Scotland 

 t lan on that of Norway and elsewhere. Indeed, Norway 

 and Sweden afford instances unparalleled in Britain of the 

 disappearance of herrings from particular districts, and 

 their return in the most unexpected manner after a long 

 course of years (see p. 26). On the coast of Scotland, tlio 

 changes which take place in the fishery consiiit in an in- 

 crease or decrease at particular districts rather than a total 

 disappearance from any one of them. TJie most marked 

 failure in recent years is in the Firth of Forth, where the 

 summer fishing has now been given up, only a small winter 

 fishing being carried on. At Wick, also, for a great number 

 of years the most important stotion on the east coast, the 

 herring fishing has been more or less diminishirw, whilst at 

 the same time Fraserburgh, only about 70 miles distant 

 from it, has gradually assumed an unexampled importance. 

 It is true that in 187G there was an immense falling off in 

 the quantity of fish landed at the latter port, but it was a 

 bad year at almost every station on the east and west coasts. 

 and the almost general decrease arose not from any apparent 

 scarcity of fish, but from the boats being frequently kept 

 in harbour by a continuance of very bad weather during 

 the fishing season, or being unable from the same cause to 

 work their nets when they reached their regular grounds. 

 There is some reason for believing the alleged scarcity of 

 herrings near the land is not so great as has been supposed. 

 Successful fishing many miles out at sea haa attracted large 

 numbers of boats from the home waters, and the catches 

 inshore have been consequently much diminished ; still 

 the general opinion appears to be well founded that the fish 

 have not entered the firths and lochs in the last few years 

 to the sama extent as they used to do. That the fisheries, 

 taken as a whole, have been gradually increasing is shown 

 by the carefully prepared statistics of the Board of 



"The crews who hnd lorRe-deckeil boats, and perstverinftly followed 

 out the tishing were successful ; while those crews about Berwick and 

 SpittU who were not so well prepared did little good. Many of the 

 Eyemouth and Coldiiigham boats made from £200 to £300 for the 

 season, several from £400 to £500, and a few from £500 to £700 

 each. The Berwick and Scittal crews, on the other hand, who fished 

 with open boat* and inferior netting, made only from £60 to £120." 

 Evidence to the same effect is given from Aiistruther, and aimilar 

 neoKls hare appeared in former reports. 



I^mheries ; and it is desirable to point out that the great in- 

 cruiise in the (juantity of netting now used is to nome coii- 

 sidurablc extent counterbalanced by the shorter time the 

 nuts are in the water ; for the boats go h>ng distaiicos to 

 sea, and they have to leave off fishing curlier in order to 

 bring in their fish in good time to the curcrs. It may 

 appi'ur strange that after the lujise of centuries during whirli 

 tlio herring fishery has been regularly carried on, so little 

 knowledge should have been gained of the habits of tlii^ 

 valuable fish ; but it must be confessed that at the present 

 moment we can say nothing positively about what bringi 

 the herring towards the land, why at one tin<e they will 

 " strike" the neis, and at another they will apparently not 

 go near them — in short, what are the particular infiuences 

 which regidate their movements. Of course, the old idea 

 that these fish come into ahoul water in order to deposit 

 their spawn is the one still generally received, and wo will 

 not venture to say it is incorrect ; but if it be true that the 

 3[)awning fish come in for that purjiose, that cannot be tlio 

 inducement in the case of the " maties " or fish which show 

 no development of the milt or roe. Yet both these herrings 

 do precisely the same. Mackerel differ from herrings in 

 spawning at the surface, and it has been abundantly proved 

 that their ova float during the whole period of develop- 

 ment; still we find that mackerel in full siiawning coudi- 

 tion, and half-grown fish also, are mixed up in the same 

 shoals at the time when they ap|. roach the land. Thus we 

 find the habits of surfacespawners and ground-spawners 

 are alike in this respect, yet the common explanation of the 

 visits of the spawning herring will not aii[>ly in the case 

 of the mackerel, or even in that of the " matie." "With 

 respect to the causes which induce the herrings to keep 

 near the surface, or to remain at some little depth, a step 

 seems to have been taken in the right direction in the 

 observations now being made of the possible relation of the 

 temperature of the sea to the higher or lower movements 

 of the fish, Good service was done by the late Marquis' of 

 Tweeddale when ho provided a number of deep-sea ther- 

 mometers for the use of the fishery officers and fishermen, 

 whose observations are reported weekly to the Meteorologi- 

 cal Society of Scotland, and come under the careful scrutiny 

 of the secretary, Mr Alexander Buclmn. It is early yet to 

 expect any definite results from this inquiry, as it has only 

 been carried on for four or five years; but the observations 

 liitherto made point to a high degree of temperature in the 

 sea being unfavourable to fishing, and show thit, when the 

 sea is found to be colder in any one district than in that on 

 either side of it, the herrings are more abundant and the 

 fishery is more successful in the colder than in the warmer 

 water. It is also stated that the influence of thunderstorms 

 had been perceptible in each year; and that if a thunder- 

 storm of some magnitude had extended over a large portion 

 of the east of Scotland, good takes of fish might be made 

 on that day, but on the following day few if any fish 

 would be caught over that part of the coast, unless at the 

 extreme verge of a deep part of the sea, as if the fish wera 

 retreating thither. Observations on the influence of winds 

 and the temperature of the sea have also been made by the 

 Dutch fishermen ; and Herr von Freedon of Hamburg 

 believes, from an analysis of these observations, that a 

 temperature of from 53° to 57° F. is most favourable for the 

 herring fishery, and that tlie chances of success diminish 

 with higuer or lower temperatures. Should these conclu- 

 sions be confirmed, it is quite possible that the fishermen 

 may be enabled, by a trial of the temperature of the sea at 

 difierent depths, to determine how far their nets should be 

 sunk to give them a fair hope of a successful fishing, instead 

 of working, as they do now, very much on the chance 

 system, often finding that thej have been too high or too 

 low for the principal part of the shoal. 



