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Appendices to Fifth Annual Report 



NOTE II — APPENDIX G. 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE given before Mr Young, at a Meeting held at 

 Lerwick on 19th June 1882, with the view of ascertaining whether 

 Shetland should be erected into a Fishery District under the Salmon 

 Fishery Acts of 1802 and 1808. 



Major Thomas 'Mouat Cameron. Annsbrae, Lerwick, examined. — I pro- 

 duce excerpt from the Minutes of the Lerwick Angling Club, appointing 

 Dr Skae and myself a committee to give evidence before this Inquiry, and 

 also the Resolutions of the Club. I have also in my hand memoranda of 

 my fishing since 1861. In 1881, for eight days' fishing in the Loch of 

 Strand, I caught 155 sea-trout, weighing 177 lbs. ; in the year 1871, I 

 had 113 sea-trout and 2 grilse ; in 1870, 72 sea-trout and 2 grilse, &c. 

 A singular thing occurred at Cullivoe, my own property, which shows 

 that it does not always do to interfere with nature. In the burn there 

 were some large stones which interfered a little with the getting in of the 

 net. I took away these stones, and I got no more trout there. There 

 is a loch in Unst in which very fine trout are caught, almost as good as 

 Loch Leven trout. There is a burn from it which falls into the sea, and it 

 was thought that if this burn were cleared out the fishing would be improved. 

 Next year my nephew got 00 trout from it in one day, but afterwards the 

 fish went out of the loch, and I got no more fish. The fishing, however, by 

 allowing the burn again to fill up, is now improving. I consider that, owing 

 to the non-observance of a close time, the fisliing has decreased very much 

 during the last fifty years. No close time whatever has ever been observed. 

 I attribute the falling off to that cause, and also to the extensive poaching 

 practices I have already referred to. One of the most destructive of these is 

 the stretching of nets across the mouths of burns when the fish come up to 

 spawn. This practice is very frequently adopted. I have known of nets being 

 stretched across the mouth of Laxfirth Voe, in which, of course, the trout 

 were caught when coming up. The net was fastened with a chain, and they 

 had some means of raising the net and letting it down. It just formed a wall 

 of netting right across the mouth of the voe. As the Salmon Fisheries Acts would 

 put a stop to these practices, it is of the greatest importance that the islands 

 should be brought under them, and if a close time were observed the sea-trout 

 fishing would be greatly improved. The most suitable close time would be 

 — for nets, from 1st September to 15th March; for rods, from 15th November 

 to 1st February. The sea-trout come up with one tide, and sometimes go 

 down with the next. "We have a spring run and an autumn run. The former 

 takes place in March, and the latter in September and October. I have never 

 caught salmon, but I have caught grilse. I caught one grilse of 5 lbs., and 

 others from 3^- lbs. to 4 lbs. I have caught one sea-trout of 8 lbs., and 

 one of 6 lbs., and several of 5, 0, and 7 lbs. Sea-trout are not often caught 

 round the shores, the cause of that being that the space being so much 

 greater the fish don't rise, whereas in a confined loch like Strand they come 

 up at once. With regard to the defining of estuaries, I consider that stake- 

 nets set across the mouth of a small voe, like the Voe of Laxfirth, would be 

 very destructive, but across the wider places would not do so much harm. 

 The beds of most of the burns are of peat, but a few of them, such as the burn 

 running into Dale's Voe, Ting wall, and at Hamnavoe, near Burravoe, in Yell, 

 could be very easily made into first-rate spawning grounds. The propagation 

 of sea-trout would decidedly improve the fishing of the islands. 



Dr Skae examined. — I have fished regularly in Shetland for a number of 

 years, and can testify as to the destruction of the fishing by those engines to 

 which Major Cameron has referred. I know that these practices are carried 



