xxiv 



Thirty-third Annual Report 



and £10,190. The increase occurred mainly on the West Coast, the 

 landings on the East Coast showing a considerable falling off, and 

 was referable in large part to Stornoway district, where the catch 

 (13,435 cwts.) was practically double that of 1913. 



Although there was an improved demand for these fish, as is 

 e\'idenced by the increased average price realised for them (3s. lid. per 

 cwt., as compared \\ath "2s. 9d. per cwt. in 1913), the Scottish market 

 for them is still very easily satisfied, and, as was the case in 1913, 

 fishermen frequently did not trouble to land their catches, but 

 returned them instead to the sea. 



III. Demersal Fish, taken by Trawl, Lines, and Nets. 



The total quantity of demersal fish landed in Scotland in 1914 was 

 2,949.008 cwts., these figures representing a decrease of 347,249 cwts., 

 or 10-5 per cent., from the catch in the preceding year. The decrease 

 was almost wholly ascribable to the conditions set up by the war — 

 restriction of fishing operations to circumscribed areas, reduction of 

 the trawling fleet by Admiralty requisitions, etc. — ^inasmuch as the 

 catch during the first seven months of the year was well in advance 

 of that for the corresponding period in 1913, while at the close of the 

 year, in spite of the handicaps referred to, the landings of no fewer than 

 nine species of white-fish, viz. torsk, whitings, conger eels, gmnards, 

 catfish, hake, tm^bot, plaice, and dabs, were in excess of the preceding 

 year's totals. In all probability haddocks would have been the only 

 species to show a decrease at the close of the year had operations been 

 permitted to follow their normal course, and the fact that notwith- 

 standing the numerous disabilities under which the fishing industry 

 laboured during the latter part of the year, the catch of white fish in 

 1914 has been exceeded only during the last four years, whereas it 

 exceeds the average for the ten years 1900-1909 inclusive by 544,116 

 cwts., or nearly 23 per cent., speaks well for the flomishing condition 

 of the Scottish fisheries. 



The value, which amounted to £1,778,973, was only £45,768 less 

 than in 1913, a somewhat remarkable fact when it is remembered that 

 the figures for that year were the highest ever recorded. This relatively 

 slight falling off in the financial yield w^as due to the high prices current 

 during the later months of the year, when fish was sellino- in the whole- 

 sale markets at rates heretofore unheard of in the industry. For those 

 vessels which were successful in securing even moderate catches the 

 period succeeding the outbreak of war was consequently the most 

 lucrative of the year, and from the point of view of value the white-fish 

 fishing of 1914 ranks second onlv to that of 1913, and exceeds the 

 previous best (that of 1912) by £112,593, or nearly 7 per cent. 



Of the total catch, trawlers landed 2,191,387 cwts., or 74 per cent. ; 

 liners, 669,461 cwts., or 23 per cent. ; and net fishermen, 88,160 cwts., 

 or 3 per cent. The corresponding figures for 1913 were 2.541.948 cwts., 

 and 77 per cent. ; 660,839 cwts., and 20 per cent. ; and 93,470 cwts., 

 and 3 per cent. The catch by nets thus maintained its position 

 relatively to the other means of capture, while that by lines shows an 

 appreciable improvement actually and a still gTeater improvement 

 relatively, from which it is evident that trawling was the branch most 

 affected by the special conditions obtaining in the latter part of the 



