162 INVESTIGATIONS IN FORTH, 1894. 



and yet not sufficiently high to support the theory of gradual 

 accumulation. Of this number 16,960 or 226 per haul were 

 saleable, the largest entry during the ten years, and 3,610 or 

 48 per haul unsaleable, one of the lower entries in the list and 

 no less than 195 under the unsaleable of 1887. These figures 

 would appear to give no support to the view that excessive 

 trawling in the offshore grounds has steadily diminished the 

 food-fishes of the Forth. The year was a fair test in regard 

 to periods and equality of hauls, and the result is therefore of 

 special interest. 



During the five colder months 33 hauls of the trawl occurred, 

 producing a total of 3880 fishes or 117 per haul, whilst the 

 42 hauls in the warmer months gave 16,690 or 397 per haul, a 

 sufficient corroboration of the divergent conditions of these 

 periods. Such also demonstrates how misleading it is to use 

 the statistics of 1897, which had no colder month at all, on the 

 one hand to illustrate the immediate influence of the closure, 

 and on the other the gradual deterioration of the inshore 

 waters since that date by the unrestricted fishing in the waters 

 beyond. 



The preceding facts are brought out quite as clearly in the 

 case of the haddock, which, as usual, is at the head of the list 

 of captures of the year with 7,033 or 93 per haul, only one 

 under last year. This average appears to be much below that 

 of 1887, in which haddocks were 129 per haul, and, therefore, 

 ostensibly forms a basis for demanding further closures so as to 

 control the " spawning grounds " of the parent-fishes, which 

 are being devastated by the trawlers, and general free fishing 

 in the open waters. But if we contrast the numbers caught 

 during the five colder months, viz. 435, with those of the 

 warmer months (which alone formed the working period in 

 1887), viz. 6,598, or 13 per haul against 157 per haul, some 

 hesitation may reasonably be felt in recommending such 

 methods of controlling the important subject of the fisheries of 

 the country. Not only is the average for 1895 found to be 

 higher than in 1887, but that of 1893, for instance, exceeds 

 them both, for its average in the warmer months was 199. In 

 glancing over the 10 years' work in the Forth, there is no 



