lxviii 



Fifth Annual Report of the 



Prosecution 

 for offences at 

 Sea, and as to 

 obtaining 

 Compensation 

 for Damage. 



Officers to 

 enquire and 

 report to 

 Board. 



Fishermen 

 sustaining 

 Damage should 

 make 



complaint to 

 Officers. 



Return of 

 complaints 

 investigated 

 and reported 

 on. 



Great 



importance of 

 this new law 

 to Fishermen. 



important changes made upon the law by the Sea Fisheries (Scotland) 

 Amendment Act, 1885, for the prosecution of offences committed by 

 any person against the provisions of the Sea Fisheries Acts, and also 

 as to the mode to be adopted for obtaining compensation for damage 

 caused by such offences. The 7ch section of the Act provides that, 

 where an offence has been committed by any person belonging to a 

 British sea-fishing boat in Scotland, or in any part of the sea 

 adjoining Scotland, against the Sea Fisheries Acts, whereby any 

 injury is done by one sea-fishing boat to another, or the nets, lines, 

 or gear thereof, or its apparatus used in fishing, it shall be lawful 

 for any sea fishery officer of the Board, to whom complaint is made 

 by the party injured, to inquire into the complaint, and, after 

 affording the person charged with the offence an opportunity of 

 being heard, to make a report to the Board, setting forth the facts 

 of the case, and the amount of the damage clone. 



The Board would therefore repeat the strong recommendation 

 which they made in their last Report, that any fisherman whose 

 boats, nets, lines, or fishing gear are damaged by any trawler or 

 other fishing boat, should immediately make his complaint known 

 to the fishery officer of the district, or to any of the commanders 

 of the superintending cruisers, who will, in terms of the Act of 

 Parliament, inquire into the circumstances of the complaint, and 

 issue a report setting forth the particulars thereof, and stating the 

 amount of damage done, and who is in fault. In the event of both 

 parties being satisfied with the report, the matter may be settled in 

 terms thereof ; but if an arrangement is not made, then the injured 

 party may take the case into Court, and have the question tried 

 and decided by the Sheriff, the statutory report being part of the 

 evidence. 



In their last Eeport, the Board gave a return up to the date of its 

 issue of the complaints investigated and reported on since the pass- 

 ing of the Act in 1885, and showing in what way each case was 

 disposed of. In Appendix H. of the present Report will be found 

 a like return for the year 1886. 



It is almost unnecessary to remark that this amendment of the 

 law has been of great importance to fishermen, as by such inquiries 

 and reports they are enabled in many cases to get a satisfactory 

 settlement of the damage they sustain without having recourse to 

 legal proceedings or incurring any expense ; and, indeed, it would 

 appear that the cases already decided have had the effect of making 

 trawlers and fishing boats more careful than hitherto in avoiding 

 doing injury to each other. 



BOATS AND VESSELS. 



Fishing Boats Table I. Appendix D, gives an account of the number of boats, 

 Herring m decked an d undecked, irrespective of the places to which they 

 Fishery belong, employed in the herring fishery of Scotland, in the season 

 msdected of 1886j in a se i ected week for each district ; with the number of 

 fishermen and boys by whom they were manned; of coopers, gutters, 

 packers, and labourers employed at the said fishery in the week so 

 selected; and the total number of such fishermen and other persons 

 so employed. 



