()/* tJie Fishery Board for Scotland. 



xvii 



be carried on during May were Storiioway and Barra and the west 

 side of Orkney and Shetland, and ii wouhl have been accounted utter 

 folly to have fished East Coast waters for herrings in that month. 

 Within recent years, however, operations have been begun on the East 

 Coast while the West Coast fisliing was still in progress, and this 

 movement came to a climax last year, when every tradition regarding 

 the early summer fishing was broken. Thus the season at Stornoway 

 was a pi'onounced failure, the total catch amounting to only 15,400 

 crans — a quantity which formerly would have been accounted little 

 more than a fair day's fishing — while at Castlebay matters were only 

 slightly better. On the other hand, no less than 170,130 crans had 

 been landed in Shetland and on the East Coast by the close of May. 

 This movement has naturally made a striking difference in the 

 proportionate landings on the three sections of the coast, and in view 

 of the still greater divergence which occurred in 1910, the table 

 illustrative of the change which was included in last year's report is 

 here repeated : — 



Year. 



East Coast. 



Orkney and 

 Shetland. 



West Coast. 



Total. 





Owts. 



Cwts. 



Cwts. 



Cwts. 



1902 



68,679 



399,618 



267,968 



736,265 



1903 



141,282 



353,939 



240,417 



735,638 



1904 



220,155 



305,831 



187,342 



713,318 



1905 



210,090 



437,032 



160,369 



807,491 



1906 



618,578 



407,100 



178,926 



1,204,604 



1907 



980,744 



334,916 



245,931 



1,561,591 



1908 



507,440 



574,905 



263,874 



1,346,219 



1909 



604,262 



435,942 



273,919 



1,314,123 



1910 



1,249,432 



1,103,003 



192,372 



2,544,807 



In other words, the proportion of the total catch contributed by the 

 East Coast has, in nine years, risen from 9 per cent, to 50 per cent., 

 while that of the West Coast has fallen from 37 percent, to 8 per cent. 



As the development of the early fishing on the East Coast 

 synchronises broadly with the rise of the steam fishing fleet, the 

 explanation of the movement is probably to be found in the annually 

 increasing extent to which steam drifters are being employed. 

 Fishermen, realising that they cannot afford to have the amount of 

 capital which is represented by a modern steam drifter lying idle for 

 any length of time, decline to be bound by convention, and fish for 

 herrings where and when they consider fish are likely to be caught 

 and a market obtained for them. Last year, however, an additional 

 influence was at work, as, owing to the enterprise of the Jewish 

 herring merchants, new markets were discovered on the Continent 

 where there was a demand for the young and immature fish which 

 are landed early in the season, with the result that foreign buyers 

 had arrived and were encouraging curers to cure for the Russian 

 markets from four to six weeks earlier than in any previous year. 



Whether such an early commencement of the fishing is in the best 

 interests of the trade is a vexed question, and among those best 

 qualified to judge much conflict of opinion exists on the point. 



h 



