lvi 



Fifth Annual Report of the 



Boats very 

 uccessful. 



How Herrings 

 were disposed. 



Winter 

 Herring 

 Fishing on 

 West Coast. 



Gross Catch of 

 Winter 

 Herrings in 

 excess of any 

 former year. 



The boats were very successful, and some of them landed indi- 

 vidual takes of from 50 to 100 crans. In Anstruther district 

 26,736 crans were caught, being 12,099 crans above the average 

 of the last ten years. In Wick district 22,184 crans were 

 landed, and in Buckie district 15,675 crans. The herrings, 

 although fairly good, were not so rich as those taken in 

 summer. They were usually sent fresh or lightly salted to the 

 markets for immediate use, or cured as kippers or bloaters. 

 Sometimes, however, when the takes landed were very great, the 

 markets became glutted, and the prices fell to so low a point, 

 that considerable quantities were cured in the regular way and 

 shipped to the Continent, in the hope that this would prove more 

 remunerative than disposing of them at home. 



Upon the West Coast the most important winter herring fishing 

 was in Ballantrae district. The catch for 1886, however, was 

 very small, having only yielded 4760 crans, as compared with 

 27,671 crans in 1885. This falling off was in a great degree owing 

 to the stormy weather which prevailed during the fishing season, 

 the boats having been frequently unable to proceed to the exposed 

 banks of Ballantrae where the herrings lay. In Stornoway district 

 about 9000 crans were landed. 



Altogether, the gross catch of winter herrings was greatly in 

 excess of that in any former year. It amounted to 128,441 crans, of 

 which 95,266 crans were landed on the East Coast, and 33,175 on 

 the West Coast. Unfortunately, the average prices realised were 

 exceedingly low, as compared with those of previous seasons. 



Curers 

 Petition that 

 Herring 

 Barrels may be 

 hooped with 

 either Wooden 

 or Iron Hoops. 



Reasons urged 

 for change. 



Board got 

 Statutory 

 Power to do 

 what was 

 wished. 



Hooping of Herpjng Barrels. 



As formerly reported, the Board received petitions from a number 

 of fish-curers at some of the principal stations in Scotland, regarding 

 the hooping of herring barrels. Under the regulations in force, it 

 was lawful to hoop barrels, for the packing, -shipping, or exporting 

 of cured white herrings, with wooden hoops only, and the petitioners 

 wished that an additional regulation should be passed, making 

 it optional to hoop such barrels either with wooden or iron hoops. 

 The reasons urged for this additional regulation being made were, 

 that great difficulty had been frequently experienced in procuring, 

 at a moderate price, the necessary quantity of wooden hoops for the 

 manufacture of the largely increased number of barrels which were 

 required, consequent upon the development of the herring fishery ; 

 while an unlimited supply of iron hoops could at all times be 

 obtained ; and also that barrels hooped with iron could be made 

 much stronger and more easily tightened than those hooped with 

 wood, and that their cost would probably be less. The Board had 

 no power to comply with the prayer of the petitioners ; but after 

 giving full consideration to the views expressed by them, and 

 having received reports from their district officers on the subject, 

 in which a general expression of opinion was given that the desired 

 change would be for the benefit of the trade, they got the Govern- 

 ment to insert in the Sea Fisheries (Scotland) Amendment Bill, 

 1885, which was afterwards passed, a clause authorising them 

 to do what was wished. The clause in this Act makes it law- 



