52 



THE SEA FISHERIES 



of trawl-caught herring landed in England and Wales during the 

 period 1907-1913 is shown in the appended table : — 



England and Wales 

 herring landed by steam trawlers 



1907 

 1908 

 1909 

 1910 

 191 1 

 1912 

 1913 



The herring taken on the western grounds were captured in from 

 70 to 100 fathoms of water, with a soft bottom. They were of very 

 large size, running from 600 to 650 fish to the cran, and they sold, 

 on the average, for about 30s. per cran, or '|d. per fish. They were 

 chiefly used for " redding " and kippering ; the reds being packed 

 in small barrels and dispatched, via Liverpool, to the Mediterranean 

 markets, while the kippers were placed on the home markets. These 

 herring appear to spend the autumn and winter months within an 

 area whose outer limit is a line drawn from Barra Head to Downings 

 Bay and are a typical Atlantic herring. With the failure of the 

 western grounds in 1910, interest in this class of fishing abated, 

 but in September of that year an Aberdeen trawler landed a shot 

 of 60 crans taken in the North Sea, 120 miles N.E. of Aberdeen. 

 This revived interest in herring trawling, more especially as the 

 North Sea was a virgin field for this class of fishing. The results 

 were not uniformly successful, but a few vessels did very well. 



The fish taken in the North Sea were much inferior to those from 

 the western grounds. Consisting at first of full matties, and subse- 

 quently of spents, they were graded in three selections : (i) 980 to 

 1200 fish to the cran ; (2) 1759 to 2100 ; (3) 2450 to 2890 ; a 

 considerable reduction in size to the western fish. 



As the fishing progressed the herrings caught became smaller, 

 and large quantities of immature herrings of from 4 to 7 in. in 

 length were thrown back into the sea dead. As in the case of the 

 western fish, the bulk of the North Sea fish were converted into 

 kippers and reds. 



The main centre for trawl-caught herring is now the North Sea, 

 the quantity taken from that area and landed in England and 

 Wales having increased from 7430 cwt. in 1907 to 421,347 cwt. in 

 1913. The next most important grounds are the south of Ireland 

 and the Bristol Channel, which together show an increase from 



