2 Appendices to Twenty- seventh Annual Report 



Decline of Grilse: Its Significance. 



It has further struck me that these rather reliable signs of decline 

 are occurring in districts where the success of the fishing depends 

 principally on the supply of grilse rather than upon the supply of 

 adult salmon. The reduction of netting in rivers and estuaries for 

 the purpose of allowing greater numbers of breeding fish to ascend, 

 as well as for the improvement of sport, is much on the increase. I 

 wrote on this subject in the Twenty-fifth Annual Report. But in 

 spite of the reduction of this, the most effective form of netting, the 

 signs to which I have referred continue. I have therefore made an 

 attempt to collect such data as are available respecting the state of 

 the coast fisheries where records of grilse and salmon are presented 

 separately. 



When Lord Elgin's Salmon Fisheries Commission took evidence in 

 1900 and 1901, not a few tacksmen came forward with statements of 

 actual catches extending over a considerable period; one or two 

 factors on large estates having great interest in salmon fisheries did 

 the same, and bodies such as the Tweed Commissioners and the 

 Aberdeen Harbour Commissioners volunteered most valuable records. 

 The last-mentioned Commissioners have further very kindty supplied 

 me with complete figures and charts up to date. I should like here 

 to state that, while netting tenants may naturally decline to make 

 public the results of their fishings, they have not the same cause for 

 objection if returns are made to a Central Authority who shall treat 

 such returns as confidential, but use them for the proper guidance of 

 the fisheries committed to their general supervision. It is clear that 

 without such returns no adequate conception of the decline of the 

 salmon fisheries over the whole country — if such decline exists — is at 

 all possible. 



The data I have been able to collect, although somewhat variable 

 as to the period of time for which figures are given from different 

 localities, embraces a wider geographical range than I thought 

 possible when I commenced the collection. Certain parts of the 

 country, such as the important fisheries on the Forfarshire coast, 

 and the fisheries of Skye and of the Sol way, are unrepresented, but 

 I have been able to secure returns in which the salmon and grilse 

 totals were kept separately from the districts of the Tweed, Tay, 

 Dee, Don, Spey, Ness, Beauly, Brora, Helmsdale, Thurso, Forss, and 

 the bag-net fisheries of both North and West Sutherland. 



The object I have had in view from the first has been to ascertain 



(1) the proportion of grilse to salmon in different localities, with the 

 view of showing any difference which may exist as between localities ; 



(2) any evident decline in the grilse take. It has never been possible 

 to make any estimate of this kind before, except in regard to 

 individual and isolated localities. 



I attach special importance to the study of the grilse catch. For- 

 tunately, the great majority of returns available give grilse separately 

 from salmon. In watching the habits of migration not only in the 

 case of adult salmon, but also in the case of grilse and smolts, as I 

 have been enabled to do through the "marking" experiments which 

 we have now carried on for about eleven years, the enormous fluctua- 

 tions of the grilse run in different years have been very apparent. 



