TRAWLING FOR HERRING 51 



furnished with a small meshed otter-trawl began in the earlier years 

 of the present century, and its inception was due to the enterprise 

 of the fishermen of Milford Haven and Fleetwood. At the com- 

 mencement of this method of fishing the net used was the ordinary 

 otter-trawl, either partly laced up or lined with a piece of herring 

 net. Subsequently a specially manufactured net was introduced, 

 which is now used by nearly all vessels engaged in this class of fishing. 

 It is unnecessary to go into technical details as to the construction 

 of this net ; it is sufiicient to say that it differs from the ordinary 

 otter-trawl in that the last 60 ft. of the net, i.e. the catching part, 

 is of extra small mesh, the cod-end or tail-end being of zj in. mesh 

 instead of the customary 3I in. In 1911 trawling for herring 

 developed so rapidly that its extension alarmed the herring drifters, 

 who started an agitation against it,^ an agitation which resulted 

 in the appointment of a Committee of inquiry by the Prime Minister. 

 Trawling for herring is usually carried on in daylight, and the best 

 hauls are made at midday.'' At night this method of fishing is less 

 successful, as the herring generally rise to the surface in the dark 

 when they are caught by the drifters. When trawling the steamers 

 go at full speed, a marked contrast to ordinary trawling, and the 

 fastest steamers are the most successful. The haul generally lasts 

 from 2 to 4 hours, except when a shoal is encountered, half an hour 

 is then sufficient. The first fishing grounds worked by this method 

 were those stretching from Barra Head southwards to the Island of 

 Inistrahull, on the N.W. coast of Ireland. The greater part of the 

 fleet engaged was composed of trawlers from Milford Haven and 

 Fleetwood ; prior to 1908 few Scottish trawlers took part in this 

 fishing. In that year several Scottish vessels, stimulated by the 

 success of the Fleetwood fishermen, tried the new method of fishing 

 with considerable success. In 1909 at the port of Aberdeen a fleet 

 of twenty-one trawlers was fitted out to trawl for herring, but the 

 fishing proved a complete failure. The same thing happened in 

 1910. The failure of the fishing in 1909 and 1910 was ascribed, by 

 those engaged in it, to the pollution of the fishing grounds by dead 

 saithe or coalfish {Gadus virens), which, taken in considerable 

 quantities with the herring, were thrown overboard from the 

 English vessels, the livers only being retained. Since then a demand 

 has been created for saithe at Milford Haven and Fleetwood, the 

 fish being now salted and cured for foreign markets. The quantity 



1 There were earlier complaints against " trawling " for herring, e.g. on the 

 west coast of Scotland in 1846 and later. But this method of " trawling " for 

 herrings was really the same thing as seining, and must not be confused with beam 

 or otter trawling. 



" But this statement is subject to modification in view of the experience of 

 Fleetwood trawlers ofi the " Smalls " in 1914. 



