90 Appendices to Thirty -fifth Annual Report 



APPENDIX N. 

 SALMON FISHERIES. 



MR. CALDER WOOD'S REPORT. 



Fishery Board for Scotland, 

 March 1917. 



I have the honour to submit my report on the Salmon Fisheries to the 

 Fishery Board for Scotland. 



I regret to have to announce, at the outset, that the past season has 

 been the worst on record in the history of Scottish Salmon Fisheries. At 

 the present time, when it is necessary to conserve as far as possible all food 

 supplies, our stock of salmon reaches a lower level than ever known. 



In 1901 it was deemed advisable to inquire by Royal Commission into 

 the state of the country's salmon fisheries, and into the steps necessary to 

 improve them. Unhappily it has never been found possible to secure the 

 necessary legislation recommended after the most ample and searching 

 inquiries. It is 15 years since the Commission reported, and during that 

 period the conditions have slowly and steadily grown worse. 



We have not yet obtained powers to secure statistics of catch. We do 

 not therefore know the number of fish taken, or what the actual decline 

 amounts to. We still receive, however, by the courtesy of the various 

 Railway and Steamship Companies, a return showing the weight of salmon 

 carried, and a glance at the chart of curves on p. x. shows the evidence 

 from this source since 1894, and the approximate state of matters. It has 

 to be borne in mind that a return of this sort gives no information of the 

 relative conditions of grilse and salmon, since there may be a great falling 

 ofi" in the small and light fish without a return based on weight giving 

 more than a hint of it. I shall refer specially to grilse later. 



Lest the decline complained of should be thought to be through a 

 lessening of the amount of fishing during the war, I may explain that 

 while the difficulty of obtaining adequate labour of the skilled sort 

 necessary for the fishing of the coast bag nets and fly nets has certainly 

 been rather severely felt by lessees of fisheries, and while some stations 

 have had to be given up in consequence, this is by no means sufficient 

 to explain the conditions which have now been steadily going on for years, 

 and which are now becoming more and more serious. Also stretches of 

 coast such as the east side of the Isle of Skye, and the island of Raasay are 

 now little fished simply because the fishing does not pay. Good years are 

 now not so good as formerly, and bad years are a good deal worse. Prices 

 may rule high in consequence, but the stock of fish is diminishing. Last 

 year one of the very best fishing centres on the east coast of the country 

 yielded less than half an average catch. From another place comes the 

 report that the catch is not a third, and that the lessee proposes to give up. 

 On the north-west coast I know also that the bag nets have been doing 



