of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



219 



purcliased for bait or for kippering. Local curers are seriously handicapped 

 by the fact that the Shetland winter fishing does not commence till near 

 the close of the Irish and Hebridean fishings ; and it has thus often been 

 difficult to sell the Shetland cure. Last season the demand was much 

 better than usual, and prices ranged from 24s. 6d. to 27s. per barrel for 

 Lafull and Full, and 21s. to 22s. for Spent, as compared with 20s. for 

 Lafull, and 18s. for «Spent in 1912. The greater part of the herrings 

 purchased for bait went on board Aberdeen steam liners, but some con- 

 signments were chilled and sent to Faroe by the Danish mail boats. 



In the month of April only small lots were landed, and mostly pur- 

 chased for bait. The summer herring fishing opened in the beginning of 

 May, but not more than 50 to 60 boats were working, and Lerwick and 

 Scalloway were the only stations then open. By the middle of the month, 

 however, between 300 and 400 had started fishing, and most of the stations 

 were open. The fleet steadily increased to a total of about 800 boats for 

 Shetland district for the first week of June, and was maintained at from 

 500 to 700 boats, steam and sail, till the beginning of July. The weather 

 then turned very calm, with clear skies at night ; and the fishing, which 

 had opened very well, completely collapsed, with the result that both 

 Scottish and English steam drifters had practically all left Lerwick by the 

 middle of July. By the end of July the fleet fishing at Lerwick had shrunk 

 to about 30 boats, and the landings for the last week of July and first week 

 of August were only 507 and 668 crans respectively. As August advanced 

 the local sail boats were more successful, and some steam drifters returned 

 to Lerwick and fished for a few weeks. Herrings appeared then to be 

 fairly widely spread, both eastwards and southwards, and with the high 

 prices that were being paid, very good earnings were made both by steam 

 and sail boats. 



The season's range of prices was from 8s. per cran early in May to 56s., 

 which was frequently paid for herrings for curing purposes between 18th 

 and 24th July at Lerwick. In fact the daily average price at Lerwick 

 was above 50s. per cran for most of July. As, however, the bulk of the 

 catch was landed early in the season , when prices were still moderate, the 

 season's average price for Shetland did not much exceed 33s. per cran as 

 compared with 27s. in 1912. 



There were only 6 stations opened at Baltasound, as against 13 the 

 previous season, and there was a great falling off in the catch, as was the 

 case at all the out-stations except Whalsay, which had a better record 

 than in 1912. Besides Lerwick, there were curing stations at Scalloway, 

 Burra Isle, Walls, Snarraness, Hillswick, North Roe, Baltasound, Uya- 

 sound, Whalsay, Hoswick, Levenwick, and Grutness, but at most of 

 these places there was only one curing station. 



Although the district totals show a decrease of nearly 50 per cent, in 

 the quantity and 36 per cent, in the value of herrings, local fishermen had 

 an exceptionally good, if not a record, season. A much larger proportion 

 of the catch than usual was landed by local boats, and they were doing 

 best when prices were highest. At least 2 sail boats had upwards of £1000 

 to their credit, the best crew having £1200 for the summer fishing. A good 

 many had from £600 to £800, and the average for the district must have 

 been almost £500, or more than £100 better than in 1912. Of 5 locally 

 owned steam drifters 4 were manned by local fishermen, and they averaged 

 considerably over £1500— the best season they have ever had. For the 

 first part of the season the English fishermen had probably higher average 

 earnings than last year, and the few Scotch and English drifters that 

 returned to Lerwick in August w^ere very successful for the short time they 

 then fished in Shetland w^aters ; but since none of them worked the whole 

 season here, it is impossible to give anything like an accurate estimate 



