of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



April . 

 May . 

 June . 

 July . 



Ausfust 



lix 



91 

 266 

 763 

 3458 

 4172 



September 

 October 

 November 

 December 



1267 

 112 

 490 

 77 



Thus over eighty per cent, of the year's total was taken in the three 

 months, July, August, and September. The shoals of herrings usually 

 enter Lochfyne by way of Kilbrennan Sound, in the Campbeltown 

 district, and it may be noted that the catch of herrings in that district 

 last year was the largest since 1902, and that there has been a steady 

 increase of the quantity taken since 1910. It is to be hoped that this 

 increase will extend into Lochfyne as in former years. Statistics show 

 that the mean annual catch of herrings in Lochfyne for the period 

 1863-1906 was 25,180 crans, and for the eighteen years up to 1906 it was 

 27,375 crans, while the greatest quantity taken in any single year was 

 56,820 crans in 1897. The figures for the last twelve years are as 



Herrings 

 Caught. 

 4,070 crans. 

 3,684 

 10,405 

 4,672 

 2,192 

 3,056 



It may be of interest to give for comparison the statistics referring 

 to the last great period of depression in the Lochfyne herring fishery, 

 which occurred in the seventies of last century, and in particular in 

 1873 and 1874. At that time the annual catch gradually fell from 

 nearly 40,000 crans in 1868 to 3648 crans in 1873, and then rose, 

 somewhat unsteadily, to the high total of 55,754 crans in 1882. The 

 figures are as follows : — 



follows : — 







Year. 



Herrings 



Year. 





Caught. 





1902 



. 26,339 crans. 



1908 



1903 



. 21,198 „ 



1909 



1904 



. 7,827 „ 



1910 



1905 



. 4,672 „ 



1911 



1906 



. 5,258 „ 



1912 



1907 



. 3,914 „ 



1913 



Year. 



Herrings 



Year. 



Herrings 





Caught. 





Caught. 



1870 



. 26,909 crans. 



1877 . 



19,618 crans 



1871 



. 13,515 „ 



1878 . 



8,890 „ 



1872 



. 9,057 „ 



1879 . 



. 21,045 „ 



1873 



. 3,648 „ 



1880 . 



. 22,768 „ 



1874 



. 4,806 „ 



1881 . 



. 32,943 „ 



1875 



. 13,546 „ 



1882 . 



. 55,754 „ 



1876 



. 22,836 „ 







It is stated in the records that a feature of the fishing in the year 

 1875 was the great abundance of very small herrings in upper Loch- 

 fyne, and small herrings often predominated in the catches in the 

 lower loch also. 



It is not an easy matter to account for such variations in the move- 

 ments of the shoals of herrings. Fluctuations in the herring fishery, 

 especially in fjords or arms of the sea, are of not unfrequent occurrence on 

 the coasts of other countries, and have been attributed to various 

 causes, but none of the explanations put forward to account for them 



