xliv 



Fifth Annual Report of the 



1885, being a decrease of 34,351 barrels, 

 in connection with the fishing. 



There was no loss of life 



Boundary of 

 District. 



Fleet of 840 

 Boats em- 

 ployed. 



Average catch 

 per Boat. 



Total Catch. 



Particulars of 

 Fishing. 



Herrings of 



superior 



quality. 



Quantity 

 Cured. 



Development' 

 of Fishery. 



Shetland Distkict. 



Comprising the Shetland Isles, and Fair Isle, and Foula Island. 



District Fishery Office — Lerwick. 



Shetland district had a fleet of 840 boats employed in the herring 

 fishing of 1886, being 15 more than in 1885, of which 504 fished in 

 Lerwick section, and 336 in Unst section. The fleet comprised 

 400 boats belonging to the district, includiug 25 small six-oared 

 boats, and 440 boats which came from different parts of the East 

 Coast, the Isle of Man, and Ireland. The average catch for the 

 season was 147 crans per boat, while the previous year yielded the 

 high average of 280 crans. The aggregate catch was about 124,000 

 crans, as compared with 231,000 crans in 1885, showing a decrease 

 of 107,000 crans. This large falling off was attributed to the stormy 

 weather which prevailed during the beginning of the season, inter- 

 rupting the early fishing on the west side of the Islands, and also to 

 the bad weather which was experienced in Unst section during nearly 

 the whole time the fishing was prosecuted. At least, in so far as it 

 appeared, there were plenty herrings upon the coast; but night after 

 night gales came on, which caused the boats to return from sea — 

 many of them without even having shot their nets. Lerwick sec- 

 tion had better weather after the first week of August, and the 

 fishing there proved more successful. The season opened about 

 the end of June — a week later than in the previous year — and 

 closed in the first week of September, being a fortnight sooner 

 than usual. The best fishing was made at Lerwick during the 

 week ending 14th August, when the fleet averaged 58 crans per boat. 

 In that week a number of individual takes were landed, ranging 

 from 100 to 120 crans. The herrings captured throughout the 

 season were rather superior in quality to those got in the previous 

 year, and fully maintained the high character which Shetland her- 

 rings bear in the foreigu markets. The gross quantity of herrings 

 cured amounted to 198,051 barrels, as compared with 370,238 in 

 1885, being a decrease of 172,187 barrels. The quantity cured last 

 year, however, shows an increase on the average cure of the preceding 

 ten years of 78,468 barrels, and an increase on the average ot the 

 preceding twenty years of 136,298 barrels. Nothing is more striking 

 in the history of the Scottish fisheries than the extraordinary de- 

 velopment of the herring fishery in Shetland in recent times ; its 

 yield rising, as it has done, from 1180 barrels in 1874, to 370,238 

 in 1885 ; and it is hoped that the stoppage of such progress last 

 year will only be temporary. 



SUMMARY OF EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 



Seven Districts The returns of the herring fishing on the East Coast of Scotland 

 crease a and ^ or 1^86 show an increase in seven districts, on the total quantity 

 ten a decrease, of herrings cured in 1885, of 99,009 J barrels, and a decrease in ten 



