of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



159 



VI.— ON THE TAY SPHAT FISHERY, 

 1905-1906. 



By John Fletcher, University College, Dundee. 



I regret to report that the Tay sprat fishing has again been a compara- 

 tive failure. Only 1371 crans of sprats, including young herrings, were 

 taken out of the river this season, as against 1348 crans during last 

 season 1904-1905, and 14,966 crans during the season of 1883-1884. 



The 1371 crans consisted of somewhere about 28 million sprats and 

 young herrings, of which some 57 per cent., or 16 million, were sprats 

 measuring from about 4-5 centimetres to 14 5 centimetres in length, and 

 the other 1 1 million, or 42 per cent., were young herrings measuring from 

 4*3 centimetres to 17 5 centimetres. 



The bulk of the fish were caught during the first half of November, 

 and at that time the sprats were of large size and of first-class quality, 

 and the prospects of a good fishing season, which were afterwards 

 completely disappointed, appeared to be excellent. The large size of 

 these sprats contrasted greatly with the much smaller and younger sprats 

 of last seasou, and caused a striking difference in the relative numbers 

 of fish per cran during the two seasons. 



Last season the average number of fish per cran was 28 ; 800, and this 

 season it was 19,200 during the first half of November, and 24,000 

 during the rest of the season. 



Most of the fish were sent off fresh to the various English markets; a 

 fair proportion, however, were salted and shipped to Germany for sardine 

 purposes, while a small fraction were either sold for manure or thrown 

 into the river, mostly while the men were at the sparling fishing. 



The 1371 crans of fresh and salted fish brought to the fishermen a sum 

 of somewhere about £350. 



During January and February, while the men were at the sparling 

 fishing, it was often difficult and sometimes impossible to obtain accurate 

 information regarding the quantities of young herrings and sprats captured 

 along with the sparlings. The difficulty was mainly due to the great 

 scarcity of fish, and to the fact that small quantities were being sent off 

 from Newburgh by the fishermen themselves, whilst other small quanti- 

 ties were taken to the Dundee Fish Dock, situated at the extreme east 

 end of the city. 



I ascertained, however, that the number of sprat boats engaged at the 

 sparling fishing varied from 1 to 20 during the latter half of December 

 and the whole of January, and from 1 to 7 during February. Each boat 

 during December and January brought in along with the sparlings from 

 1 bucket to 2 crans of young herrings and sprats per day, while during 

 February the average quantity was only about 2 or 3 buckets per day. 



Unlike last season, the Broughty-Ferry fishermen and the sprat fisher- 

 men paid no heed to the Board's recommendation of January, 1904, 

 namely: — that both fishermen should observe a line of division drawn 



