SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 77 



process of decadence which is, apparently, now approaching 

 completion. 



The Herring Fisheries. 



The pelagic fisheries had even worse luck than that which 

 was experienced by trawling. There was never (in modern 

 times) a home market for more than about half (at the very 

 most) of all the herrings caught, and so the great drift-net 

 fishery depended largely upon an export trade. This has had 

 many ups and downs, but never so disastrous a period as that 

 of 1914-1920. The two great markets were Russia and Ger- 

 many, and the latter, of course, closed down on August 4th, 

 1914. With incredible difficulty the Russian market was kept 

 open till the end of 1916 : in that year, for instance, a schooner 

 took 200 barrels of salted herrings from Port St. Mary to 

 Whitehaven, en route for Newcastle and Russia, and the freigh- 

 age was 4/- a barrel across the Irish Sea. One cargo, worth 

 £7,000, that did enter Russia cost £28,000 in freight and other 

 charges. Another cargo (at least) was frozen up in the Gulf 

 of Finland, and yet another had to be housed in sheds specially 

 built at the port of landing. A new route was opened up, 

 but in the end the political difficulties of the trade proved more 

 formidable than did the natural ones and the export into 

 Russia practically ceased. It is difficult to learn what was the 

 volume of the trade with Russia and Germany during 1919 

 and afterwards, but certainly its methods must have resembled 

 gambling rather than respectable business transactions. The 

 great East Coast herring fishery carried on during 1919 and 

 1920 only because the Government guaranteed a price to the 

 fishermen and took over the herrings packed.* This they 

 seem to have done without either courage or conviction, for, 

 early in 1921, it was announced that the guarantee would be 

 withdrawn, and at the time of writing the chances are that 



* Which so far are largely unsold. 



