FISH-NOTES FROM ORE AT YARMOUTH. 27 



Fisheries. Striking facts were presented to their notice. It was 

 stated that £10,000,000 was invested in Herring fishing at Yar- 

 mouth and Lowestoft, and 25,000 fishermen were concerned, while 

 apart from the allied trades 60,000 people were engaged in it. 

 It was incontestably proved that trawled Herrings were far 

 inferior in quality to those taken by drift-nets ; they were scale- 

 less and went black. Huge quantities of immature fish were 

 destroyed, and the spawn undoubtedly suffered. A case was 

 quoted where a skipper made a catch of 1200 boxes of Herrings, 

 of which only 150 boxes were landed; at best the small fishes 

 were only fit for manure. International action would have to be 

 taken or ruin would follow. 



Writing me on Nov. 4th, Mr. Ernest E. Cooper, of Southwold, 

 remarks that " the Herrings are very southerly this year, and I 

 understand the bulk of the fishing in October has been done 

 abreast of this town ; unfortunately the Scotch curers boycotted 

 us this year, and we have had few boats in." 



The record price of <£4 2s. per cran was realized in Lowestoft 

 early in December. 



There was an early inshoring of very fine Sprats off South- 

 wold, the first catches being made in October, " when," writes 

 Mr. Ernest R. Cooper, "a school set in from the north and 

 between 20th and 25th October, when 646 bushels were landed 

 in the harbour. Unfortunately the weather broke then, blowing 

 strongly from the south-west for several days, then from the 

 north-west, and not a bushel has been caught since. [Dated 

 Nov. 4th.] I trust, however, that another school will set in 

 from the south as usual this month." Mr. Cooper gives the first 

 arrivals in 1910 and 1911 on Nov. 2nd and Nov. 13th respectively. 

 I saw no more on sale in Yarmouth until Nov. 11th, when a few 

 turned up, on which date also broke upon us a gale from the 

 westward, veering to the north, which put a stop at once to all 

 sea-fishing operations, when the Scotch and English fishing 

 luggers were packed in Yarmouth Harbour like matches in a box. 

 Under date of Dec. 10th, Mr. Cooper writes that " the quantity 

 of Sprats landed at Southwold Harbour in Nov. 1912 was 533 

 bushels against 64 bushels in Nov. 1911. More are landed on 

 the beach ; probably the harbour catch is about one-third the 

 total landings at Southwold." To the middle of December good 



