xxii 



Twenty-ninth Annual lieport 



been opening up, cod are plentiful, and haddocks comparatively scarce. 

 The increase in the total catch of cod as compared with the stationary 

 condition in the case of haddocks admits, however, of a further 

 explanation. Haddocks are caught chiefly by small-lines, and cod by 

 great-lines, and while small-liners have been unable successfully to 

 compete with trawlers, great-line fishing is still an effective method of 

 capturing cod, so that the great-liners liave held their ground fairly 

 well against trawling. The result is, therefore, that haddock fishing 

 has passed very largely from the hands of the line-fishermen into 

 those of the trawlers, so that the increase in the trawling fleet has 

 been discounted to a considerable extent by the decrease in the 

 number of small-lines used. In the case of cod, on the other hand, 

 trawling has not so much superseded as supplemented line-fishing, the 

 result being that the total catching-power has increased with the 

 growth of the trawling fleet, and is now greater than is employed in 

 haddock fishing. 



As compared with the figures for 1909, the catch of 980,228 cwts. 

 shows an increase of 98,205 cwts., which was mainly referable to trawl- 

 ing, the Aberdeen fleet having landed over 10^,000 cwts. more than 

 in the preceding year. There was a further increase in the quantity 

 taken by nets, and as illustrating the rapid development of cod-net 

 fishing, the following table showing the catches by this method since 

 its introduction on the East Coast is interesting : — 



On the East Coast cod-net fishing is carried on chiefly in the 

 Moray Firth during the spring months, when the fish congregate 

 there in order to spawn. When in that condition the fish do not 

 readily take bait, and consequently few are taken by lines, so that the 

 net is peculiarly suited for the capture of gravid cod. The line-fishing 

 returns show a sudden drop from the previous year's figures of 

 37,646 cwts., or 15 per cent., which was very largely referable to the 

 fact that no vessels from Shetland, and very few from Orkney, prose- 

 cuted cod -fishing at Faroe and Iceland during 1910. 



The total value of the catch was £409,456, or £71,889 more than in 

 1910, which was accounted for by an increase of £67,395 in the value 

 of the trawled catch, and of £12,375 in the value of the catch by nets, 

 offset by a decrease of £7881 in the sum realised for line-caught fish. 



The total catch of ling in 1910 was 226,961 cwts., valued at £71,069, 

 as compared with 190,872 cwts. and £50,401 in 1909. Ling is one of 

 the few species of round fish still caught principally by line, and during 

 the year under review line-fishing more than maintained its superiority, 

 as, while the trawl catch remained practically stationary (73,880 cwts., 

 as against 72,934 cwts.), the line catch increased by 35,143 cwts., or 30 

 per cent. For this increase the Aberdeen steam liners, with an increase 



1906 

 1907 

 1908 

 1909 

 1910 



9,108 cwts. 

 8,760 

 23,390 



51,149 

 86,699 



Ling. 



